A Physics-Grounded Multi-Modal Sensor Fusion Framework for Pedestrian Impact Kinematic Reconstruction Under Uncertainty: Phase 1 Design and Theoretical Evaluation

Pedestrian–vehicle collisions produce a rich kinematic record that is entirely lost by the time a forensic investigation begins. Recovering this record constitutes a state-estimation problem. This paper presents a Phase 1 design for a multimodal sensor fusion and signal-processing framework utilising 128-channel LiDAR, 1080p NIR stereo cameras, and a 2 kHz IMU, all fused via Kalman filtering and Savitzky–Golay polynomial differentiation. The framework is evaluated through Monte Carlo uncertainty propagation and sensitivity analysis applied to a constructed simulation scenario; no real clinical or forensic data are used in this Phase 1 report. Under simulated conditions with throw-distance measurement uncertainty of ±0.5 m, velocity reconstruction shows an estimated propagated uncertainty of ±2.03 km/h under expanded simulation conditions with vehicle-coefficient variance activated. Sensitivity analysis indicates that a 10% noise spike in acceleration would theoretically amplify injury metrics by 26.9%, providing quantitative justification for noise-optimal pre-filtering. The bimodal kinematic–acoustic architecture is proposed as a physically interpretable foundation for collision reconstruction; its experimental performance awaits Phase 2–4 validation. A five-phase validation roadmap is presented, progressing from FEA simulation to independent multi-site replication before any forensic deployment is proposed.