Healthcare robotics across home and hospital settings: innovations, challenges, and future prospects

This survey provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary review of robotics integration into healthcare, with a focus on both technological progress and practical implementation across home and hospital settings. Motivated by the growing demands of aging populations and increasingly complex clinical care, robotics has emerged as a transformative tool capable of enhancing service delivery, patient outcomes, and system efficiencies. The review categorizes healthcare robots into in-home and in-hospital applications, examining their diverse roles—from assistive and companion robots supporting independent living to surgical, logistical, and diagnostic systems optimizing hospital operations. Beyond describing technical capabilities, this survey emphasizes the practice-level implications of adoption, including workforce training, organizational integration, and patient and caregiver engagement. It also identifies major barriers such as high costs, interoperability issues, ethical and legal uncertainties, and uneven adoption across different healthcare environments. The article concludes with a forward-looking discussion of underexplored research areas and strategic opportunities, including advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), regulatory standardization, and inclusive design. This review aims to support researchers, healthcare professionals, and policymakers in making informed decisions regarding the development, deployment, and governance of healthcare robotics.