Improved Occupant Protection through Cooperation of Active and Passive Safety Systems – <underline>C</underline> ombined <underline>A</underline> ctive and <underline>P</underline> assive <underline>S</underline> afety CAPS

One of the most important aims of the automotive industry is to provide the best possible protection for drivers, passengers and pedestrians. Through their CAPS (Combined Active and Passive Safety) program (see Figure 1), Bosch is developing new functions which help to achieve these goals and contribute to accident mitigation and/or reduction of accident severity. By linking existing active and passive automobile safety systems and extending these by adding systems for monitoring and evaluating the vehicle's environment, the foundation for new safety functions is created.

The growing number of airbags in vehicles provides more and better protection against injury for the occupants. In addition, active safety systems such as the ESP® Electronic Stability Program help to prevent an accident occurring in the first place. If these systems are linked together, they can share information and provide even better safety for drivers and passengers through new functions. For example, if ESP® recognizes a threat to the driving stability of the vehicle, it can activate passive safety systems such as reversible seatbelt tensioners. If radar or video sensors indicate that an accident is unavoidable, the airbag system performance can be improved, resulting in better occupant protection. Improved operation of the airbags offers especially good potential for better protection in rollovers or side crashes.

The following article presents one important element of the overall CAPS approach. The improvement of the occupant protection, through the use of Vehicle Dynamic Data and Surround Sensing Systems.