Good things come to those who innovate!
Here’s a look back at the Solentanche Freyssinet 2023 Innovation Awards & Sixense’s participation.
What are the Innovation Awards?
They are conducted annually by Soletanche Freyssinet to honor the way our organization pushes boundaries and emphasizes new ideas. To be eligible, innovations had to have already been tested or include a fairly detailed business plan. This year 193 innovations were submitted, and divided into 5 categories:
- Marketing & Business Development: Development of new services for our customers and new applications for our products.
- Engineering & Technologies: Innovative designs linked to technological solutions and validated on completed works.
- Management & Digital: Innovations in project or company management; innovations that contribute, through the use of new digital technologies to optimizie the performance of our businesses.
- Site know-how: Practical and site-specific innovations developed by operational teams.
- New ideas for the future: Ideas for development, new markets, and new techniques that will contribute to the future development of Soletanche Freyssinet.
The prizes were determined by 5 geographical areas:
- France
- Europe (excluding France), the UK, the Middle East, and Africa
- North America
- Latin America
- Asia and Oceania
Details:
In each geographical area, the projects were submitted to a regional jury made up of members from different departments of the company. The final jury was made up of members of Soletanche Freyssinet’s COCOR. Six 2023 Innovation Award ceremonies took place, one in each geographical area, and a final ceremony at the end of December 2023 in Paris.
Sixense’s participation in the SF 2023 Innovation Awards
The Sixense teams submitted 19 projects in the various categories and regions. Of these 19 submissions, 5 projects won an award. Please take a look at the winners below, including Sixense Northern America for their innovation while mapping and tracking tunnel Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine (Canada).
🏆 Management & Digital category – France Special Prize: Digital inspection with automatic disorder detection.
An innovation by FABRY Pierre-Marin, BESSOULE Nicolas, COATSALIOU Alexis, GARDON Elisabeth and BENKASSOU Ali.
Innovation in a nutshell:
Digital inspection consists of measuring the entire structure using a digital sensor, either remotely or at close range. This new working method “brings the work back to the office”, offering significant productivity gains both on-site (with intervention times reduced by 30% to 70%, depending on the structure) and in the office, notably using artificial intelligence via the Cameleon tool developed by Sixense. The Cameleon tool enables disorders to be identified directly from images.
🏆 Engineering and Technology category – Americas Award: 3D defect mapping and tracking for tunnel Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine (Canada).
An innovation by KROELY Benoit.
Innovation in a nutshell:
As part of the project to completely rehabilitate the tunnel, Sixense has developed a new solution including a trolley specifically designed for 3D acquisition of the tunnel, with millimeter precision. Acquisition can be carried out several times throughout the project, enabling a before-and-after chronology to be created. The solution also includes 3D rendering software called beMap. It projects the 3D model and enables end-users to measure and mark the section to be repaired directly on the images. The solution also includes access to Beyond Asset, our digital tool for tracking repairs and associated tasks. Communication between these 3 tools has been automated as far as possible. This innovation is the result of collaboration between three Sixense entities: Sixense Canada for the project, Sixense Digital for Beyond Asset and Sixense Mapping for the 3D part.
🏆 Site know-how category – Asia-Oceania Special Prize: 4DVib, a solution for remote dynamic monitoring of structures.
An innovation by LAHALLE Felix, CHALESLE Yohan, NIHOTTE Ivan, KO Ing-Hui and TR Madhavan.
Innovation in a nutshell:
4DVib uses interferometric radar technology to remotely measure the displacements of structures at high frequencies, to measure the displacements of structures at high frequencies, measure vibrations and define natural frequencies. This solution saves time and eliminates the need to intervene on the structure, for greater safety and speed. 4DVib was implemented to monitor the Singapore Ferris wheel. Faster and requiring less intervention and downtime, the 4DVib solution did not necessitate any shutdowns. Freyssinet was able to replace the cables, which were inspected via 4DVib as soon as they were installed.
🏆Site know-how category – Europe Award: Cyclops mobile deployed in Monaco.
An innovation by LICHTENBERGER Andre, GEHU Guillaume, GIANNO Remi, BASTH Amaury and PRUSAK Arnaud.
Innovation in a nutshell:
This solution measures absolute displacements by topography in a pit or shaft. Basically, the Cyclops is automatically moved up and down in increments, so that the technician no longer must intervene at the bottom of the pit on a daily basis. The solution is designed to enable 24-hour monitoring of the entire worksite, by automating measurements to increase productivity, autonomy and customer satisfaction. Limiting the presence of technicians at the bottom of the excavation helps to minimize coactivity between operators and machines, improving team safety and the quality of their working conditions. This solution for moving a Cyclops is covered by a French patent.
🏆 Marketing & Business Development category – Asia-Oceania Award: Beyond Monitoring, a digital real-time monitoring platform.
An innovation supported by BASTH Amaury, EL GAMMAL Marie-Laure, FEJOZ Remi, LECLUSE Nicolas and CAMHAJI Stephane.
Innovation in a nutshell:
Beyond Monitoring is a software platform, accessible online or via an application, enabling real-time management of customer site data. It is a decision-support solution for anticipating and controlling geotechnical, environmental and structural risks. It can integrate data of all types, from a variety of sources and formats, including those from third-party services. This digital platform takes over from Geoscope, our historic data integration and visualization software, developed and maintained for over 25 years. Beyond Monitoring is deployed on over 50 projects in Asia and Oceania, including Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop, a 90 km orbital rail loop through the Melbourne suburbs.
Congratulations to all the award-winning innovation teams, and to the employees involved in the projects submitted. 👏
At Sixense, we are proud of our teams and their daily commitment to their missions and the development of innovative solutions. This commitment not only contributes to the continuous improvement of our solutions for customers, but also to the safety of our employees.
