Research hotspots, knowledge structure, and emerging trends in healthcare robotics for older adults: a bibliometric analysis (2015-2026).

Although applications in the field of Robotic Technologies for Older Adults' Healthcare are becoming increasingly widespread, existing research has largely focused on specific application scenarios, and a comprehensive understanding of the global research landscape, knowledge structure, thematic evolution, and future trends remains limited. This review aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis and visualization of the field of Robotic Technologies for Older Adults' Healthcare, revealing the research landscape, research hotspots, thematic evolution, and future development trends in this field. This review adopted the bibliometric analysis method. The Web of Science Core Collection was selected as the core database, covering the period from January 2015 to July 2026, and literature screening was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines. Conduct bibliometric analysis using R Bibliometrix, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace, including publication trends, citation analysis, collaboration networks, keyword co-occurrence, topic clustering, and outlier detection. Meanwhile, the PubMed database was additionally included to assist in validating the results of the bibliometric analysis. This research field has developed rapidly since 2016. Among them, China has the highest number of publications, while the United Kingdom has the highest average citation impact, indicating a discrepancy between research output and academic influence. International Journal of Social Robotics ranked first in both the number of publications and total citations, while BMJ Open had the highest average citations per article. Most core research institutions were concentrated in Japan, showing the characteristic of regional concentration in this research field. Core authors formed several research groups (such as Yu, Bevilacqua, and Rigaud), but extensive international collaboration has not yet been formed. Robotic Technologies for Older Adults' Healthcare is gradually forming a knowledge system integrating technology development, healthcare applications, and evidence-based development. Three hotspot themes were further identified, including Intelligent Assistive Robots, Healthcare, Rehabilitation, and Wellness for the Aging Population, and Trend Forecasting. Among the burst keywords, "PARO," "Gait," and "Deep Learning" indicate that robotic technologies are focusing on older adults' social companionship, physical function recovery, and personalized health management, representing the frontier hotspots in this field. In the future, AI technologies, multimodal intelligent interaction, personalized health management, and cross-disciplinary collaborative innovation may become the key driving forces for the continuous development of this field, promoting the translation of clinical effectiveness in the field of Robotic Technologies for Older Adults' Healthcare. This review provides a comprehensive knowledge map of Robotic Technologies for Older Adults' Healthcare and offers evidence-based insights for medical researchers and policymakers regarding future technological developments and clinical translation.