Clinical logistics robots: Architecture, HIS integration, and operational safety

The critical personnel shortage and increasing logistical burden in global health systems are making hospital operations unsustainable, turning autonomous solutions into a strategic necessity. This study synthesizes the literature from 2015–2025 within the PRISMA protocol framework to examine the causal relationship between the technical architecture and clinical performance of autonomous mobile robots (AMR) in hospital logistics. Due to data heterogeneity, a qualitative synthesis method was adopted, and robotic systems were structured along the axes of "navigation, task, and kinematics." The findings reveal that despite the technological evolution from infrastructure-dependent vehicles to autonomous systems, a "high intelligence, low integration" paradox prevails in the clinical setting. The impact of architectural trade-offs, particularly between drive kinematics (holonomic and differential) and payload security, on clinical outcomes is significant. The most striking finding of this review is that robots with high technical autonomy capacity remain as "digital islands" disconnected from the workflow due to their inability to establish deep integration with Hospital Information Systems (HIS), thereby creating an "invisible workload" on staff. Consequently, the study proves that enhancing the clinical value of autonomous robots depends not on singular engineering improvements but on the adoption of standardized reporting protocols and the integration of technology as an institutional "infrastructure component.