2023-05-02 18:58:22
Working on a highway can be a high risk job. Since the beginning of the year, 40 material or bodily accidents have already been deplored. In 2022, it was 169, compared to 126 the previous year. Clashes can even turn tragic. Last year, four agents were killed in France in the exercise of their functions.
“These figures are unacceptable! ” denounces Aurélien Lafon, CEO of the company Europe Service, based in Aurillac, in Cantal. For about two years, his company has been developing, in collaboration with the motorway company APRR and a robotics specialist, Sud-Ouest Système, based in the neighboring Lot, an innovation intended to save lives.
Leader in France on the snow removal and road maintenance machinery market, Europe Service has developed an articulated arm capable of placing and depositing cones and road signs automatically, without human intervention.
“To do 6 km of markup, you need 250 cones… A load of one ton! »
“Until now, the agents did everything by hand, in a light van, attached to a harness. The gesture is dangerous and physically very hard. You should know that each site beacon weighs 4 kg. To make 6 km of markup, you need 250 cones. This represents a load of one ton! points out Aurélien Lafon.
For the entrepreneur, “this innovation makes it possible to reproduce the gestures of a human hand, like those articulated arms that can be found in a factory, in a totally secure manner. The assembly is placed on a 26-tonne vehicle much safer than a van. All the agent has to do is program the machine and drive the vehicle,” rejoices Jean-Luc Bongibault, project manager at APRR, who followed the file from A to Z.
Marketed by the end of the year and already pre-orders
E-cone – the name of the articulated arm – is still in the test phase, but the results are already convincing. It will be marketed by the end of the year. And all the motorway companies are on the lookout. “APPR initially pre-ordered six machines. But this is only the beginning”, assures Jean-Luc Bongibault. Especially since this invention can also be applied to expressways…
For its part, Europe Service has invested nearly 1 million euros in the development of this innovation, because the market is buoyant. “We should sell our robot for around 250,000 euros. Eventually, we should produce 20 to 30 per year. We know that highway companies around the world are interested. For us, it is a significant way of diversification which will contribute to creating new jobs”, deciphers Aurélien Lafon, at the head of a company as discreet as it is flourishing.
The group already has 370 employees for a turnover of 140 million euros. “Since the beginning of the year, sixteen people have been hired. Fifteen positions are still to be filled. »
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