Smart technology and multibody simulation for skier safety: a structured narrative review and research roadmap

This structured narrative review examines how smart equipment, wearable and environmental sensing, digital twins, and multibody simulation can contribute to skier safety and prevention of ski-injury. The Scopus® search produced 58,919 aggregate query returns; after excluding two deliberately broad searches, 1,285 targeted-query records were screened and 74 sources were retained. The backward and the forward search for citation searches supported by Google Scholar™ identified another 76 sources, giving 150 included sources. Because the literature is heterogeneous in study design, outcome, and technological maturity, the evidence was synthesised qualitatively rather than by meta-analysis. The review distinguishes technologies that are already useful for measurement or protection from approaches that remain experimental or conceptual. It also identifies validation, calibration, uncertainty quantification, interoperability, false-alarm control, and field robustness as the principal barriers to real-time predictive safety systems. Finally, a non-validated Human–Skills–Equipment–Environment framework and a conceptual Skier Safety Index are presented solely as hypotheses for future research. The resulting roadmap prioritises prospective validation with human-subject data, standardised multimodal data sets, transparent model verification, and controlled evaluation of adaptive safety interventions.