The main objective of the CARISSMA program is to provide the highest level of safety for all road users. The focus lies on the development of a global safety system which can imitate the senses feeling, hearing, seeing and communicating by using the bionic principle so that car drivers will be able to detect dangers in their environment and turn away. This system will be made up of integrative safety systems and it will ensure a better protection of road users, in particular of the most vulnerable from them. Safety functions are developed nowadays in the form of individual systems. The development of a global safety system will include the increased networking of integrative systems with a wide range of functions.     

The individual safety systems in vehicle are divided into passive and active safety systems. The passive vehicle safety enables accident mitigation for collision partners and focuses on improving the car body structure which should absorb the kinetic energy of the collision partners, on optimizing the capacity of accident detection through a better activation of the passenger protection systems and on developing further mechanisms to prepare all inmates for an accident (pre-crash). The main role of the active safety systems is to avoid accidents through intervention in the driving process. This is supported by chassis regulating systems, e.g. the electronic stability program (ESP), the anti-lock system (ABS), the traction control system (ASR) as well as by extended driver assistance systems that ensure the functionality of the suspension area and prevent collisions through autonomous avoidance and braking mechanisms. Furthermore, the interface safety – another component of the global safety system – ensures a defined interaction between integrated systems and other vehicle systems. Particular attention will be focused on the chassis regulators based on drive concepts with recuperation, the actuators’ efficiency, the possibility of securing the energy supply when more safety actuators with a high level of power consumption intervene at the same time in the system as well as on the production of mechatronical vehicle components using integrated safety systems.

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The new safety systems will be developed by means of the bionic principle, combining the senses feeling, seeing, hearing and communicating with the cognitive and actuatory capacity of humans in order to increase the level of road safety.