SMART-RCS

Worldwide, over 1 million people die each year in road accidents and millions more suffer from injuries. Mandatory Passive Safety Systems (PSS) e.g. in case of a crash, trigger passive safety functions such as airbags and seat belts to reduce the number of fatalities and heavy injuries. However, these PSS follow a ”few-sizes-fit-all” approach (optimized to an “average person” – 175cm, 78kg and male) and thus today, especially for women, children, elderly and people deviating from the average, this leads to significantly higher risks, e.g. any seatbelt-wearing female occupant is 73% more likely to suffer from serious injuries than seatbelt-wearing male occupants (Univ. Virginia). Our project combining R&D and market expertise of 2 industries (airbag and testing systems) and 1 SME partner (computer vision-based software) will disrupt the existing PSS market by introducing a novel highly PERSONALIZED PROTECTION. For the first time, touchless 3D imaging sensors are used to derive precise and real-time information about each occupant - body physique, position and pose, weight and sex - in order to control the PSS mechanisms tailored to each individual occupant. This optimizes the protective function while simultaneously also mitigating the risks of doing unnecessary harm which today also can occur. During this project we will develop our system up to TRL8, standardize & prepare its components for the market needs and implement quality assurance processes required by the automotive industry. Also, a first pilot project with a car manufacturer shall be conducted to allow a short time-to-market across the EU and worldwide on the long run. Our impact targets: saving more than 11.000 lives and preventing over 600.000 injuries between 2025 and 2035. Our innovation strategy: What the system will provide in nowadays cars will also be highly relevant when passengers will be able to move much more freely throughout the interior of a car – in the era of autonomous vehicles.