The methods being researched within SyEnA are making an important contribution to the safe mobility of people in their jobs and in their leisure time. This will occur indirectly as the SyEnA research is not carried out directly on product development but rather on the methods which make designing innovative products possible in the first place. So new design methods and processes are indispensable, for instance for developing the most modern active and passive safety systems in cars to help prevent accidents or protect the car passengers.
For example, innovations on enhanced automation and reliability in emergency systems make for quicker and more appropriate assistance. It would be advantageous if the automatic emergency systems of the future not only gave an absolutely reliable answer to the question “Where?” but also answered the other five “W”s: What happened where?, which number of casualties are we dealing with?, which injuries?, who is calling?. It is for instance essential for the efficacy of the rescue team to know how many casualties to expect and what type of injuries were sustained. This is where innovative emergency alarm systems with more functionality can help, but these have to be equipped with more and more sensory functions. Here it is planned to have (wireless) sensors to monitor vital functions and to recognize injuries. Furthermore innovative emergency systems could be used in accident prevention if the body function monitor, integrated with the seatbelt, recognized fatigue and set off an alarm call, which could thus prevent an accident. Further potential is to be found e.g. in intelligent brake assistants and systems to warn of impending collisions using a wide range of sensors and actuators. More sensors and more actuators, however, also mean more analog system parts, which with the current design methods require enormous design effort. The SyEnA project will make a contribution here through its results by setting up methods which enable the use of these complex sensory functions and signal processing, which are so indispensable in this type of emergency systems. The project partners will prove the efficacy of their new procedures for designing products by means of an inertial measuring system which can be used in connection with an innovative emergency system for improved rotational position sensing.
When finding the position after accidents it is important to remember that GPS signals are not available all the time and everywhere. Particularly in urban territory between buildings standing close together, in closed spaces and also in subways and tunnels this signal often disappears. Position finding is therefore not possible and it is difficult for rescuers to find the scene of the accident, or in the worst case they do not find it at all. Particularly in this point the application chain within the project is completed as one of the project partners produces inertial measuring systems, which can bridge the gap on missing GPS-signals. Apart from defining the exact position where the accident occurred, the 3 axes accelerometers and yaw sensors belonging to these systems can also record information on the type of accident scenario. From which direction could the impact have occurred, did the vehicle perhaps overturn, did the airbags deploy? etc. These and other important details which are relevant for assessing the rescue situation could be transmitted straight to the central rescue service centre by means of the data links in the vehicle or the measuring system. Then the necessary steps could be initiated.
SyEnA will continue to help bolster domestic industry. Germany leads worldwide in the development and use of AMS systems. In order to retain this position constant upgrades and improvements are necessary and SyEnA makes a significant contribution here. Since dominating the design of complex AMS systems is an important unique selling point or the German electronic industry the competitiveness of German industry is supported by the increased automation of analog design. The benefit of SyEnA for the man in the street and for business is ensured partly due to the fact that newly developed and improved design methods are particularly tested for their suitability for industrial purposes.