Nurse Ratchet: Diligent Robotics’ wheeled hospital bots save 500K human hours

Vivian Chu, co-founder and CTO of Diligent Robotics, argues that wheeled robots will handle most commercial applications, challenging the current industry focus on bipedal humanoid robots from companies like Tesla and Figure.AI. Her Austin-based startup has deployed over 90 wheeled robots across 25+ hospitals, completing 1.2 million supply deliveries and saving an estimated half a million hours of human labor.

What you should know: Diligent Robotics’ wheeled robot Moxi represents what Chu calls the “minimum viable humanoid” — a practical approach to workplace automation.

• Moxi features two arms, a head, and wheels instead of legs, designed specifically for hospital environments that are already ADA-compliant with ramps and automated doors.
• The robot handles routine but time-consuming tasks like delivering lab samples, medical supplies, and equipment between hospital departments.
• Chu estimates that nurses and clinicians spend up to 30% of their time on logistical tasks and less than 30% on direct patient care.

The design philosophy: Each component of Moxi serves a specific functional purpose rather than mimicking human appearance.

• The arms allow the robot to operate existing infrastructure like elevator buttons without requiring costly hospital modifications that could cost up to $1 million.
• The head enables eye contact and intent communication while housing the main manipulation sensor, helping staff understand what the robot is doing.
• Wheels provide statistical stability and safety — if the robot powers down, it can simply be rolled aside.

Why legs aren’t necessary: Chu believes the wheeled form factor will cover the majority of commercial robot applications.

• “I do think that over time, you’re going to very quickly see that the wheel form factor — like two arms, a head, and a wheel — is probably going to be a form factor that ends up covering the majority of what you need,” she told Business Insider.
• Legs become necessary only in specific scenarios like disaster recovery or homes with stairs, but these represent niche use cases.
• The focus should be on identifying workflows and pain points where robots can operate 24/7 to give people their time back.

Measurable impact: Diligent Robotics has demonstrated concrete results in hospital deployments.

• One hospital system now routes every single telemetry box through Moxi across three massive buildings, eliminating human involvement in that task entirely.
• The company’s robots have completed over 1.2 million deliveries, translating to approximately 500,000 hours of saved human labor based on average distances and task completion times.
• More than 90 Moxi robots are currently deployed across 25+ hospitals.

In plain English: Telemetry boxes are bedside monitors that track patients’ vital signs like heart rate and blood pressure — they need to be moved around hospitals constantly as patients are transferred between rooms and departments.

Technical challenges ahead: Chu identifies battery technology as the primary bottleneck for scaling robot capabilities.

• Current Moxi robots last about 16 hours with smart charging, while some humanoid companies achieve only 90-minute runtime.
• As computational demands increase, power consumption becomes the limiting factor for robot performance.
• Safety remains paramount in hospital environments, with concerns about fire hazards and platform reliability.

What they’re saying: Chu emphasizes the importance of matching robot capabilities to specific use cases rather than pursuing general-purpose designs.

• “It can be very premature to talk about legged robots because the thing that a warehouse needs might not require legs. A legged form factor in homes — I see it pretty far, far away.”
• On investor perspectives: “In the beginning, investors would ask, ‘Why do you have an arm?’ Now they ask, ‘Why don’t you have two arms?'”

Looking ahead: Diligent Robotics plans to expand Moxi’s capabilities while maintaining its practical focus.

• The company is developing two-arm configurations for tasks requiring additional dexterity, such as assembling case carts and handling more complex supplies.
• Integration with hospital records systems could enable automatic task triggering based on patient admissions.
• Dialogue capabilities are being explored to enhance human-robot interaction in healthcare settings.