Meet Moxi: Why We Invested in Diligent Robotics

Richard Boyle, General Partner at Canaan

Until recently, the use of robots in healthcare settings was mainly in the realm of science fiction. Surgical assistance via robotic arm technologies hit the scene in the 1980s, and while surgical robots remain the most well-known use case today (think Intuitive and Da Vinci), we’re now seeing robots go far beyond ORs and seeing more in clinical settings designed to support healthcare workers and enhance patient care. 

The COVID-19 pandemic launched a global experiment in how, where, and why to insert robots into new healthcare settings, including those deployed for telepresence, cleaning, and sterilization. We’ve also seen more nascent categories such as “collaborative” robots (or “cobots”) – robots that work with humans in a given workspace – gaining traction across top US healthcare systems. 

This is an industry ripe for disruption, and we’re excited to lead a new investment in one such company: Diligent Robotics.

Diligent Robotics builds socially intelligent autonomous robots that perform non-patient-facing tasks in healthcare facilities. Its first “cobot,” called Moxi, is already in production and used across 22 healthcare systems, including Cedars Sinai and Northwestern Medicine. Moxi works in tandem with clinical teams by taking on logistical tasks that often stand in the way of high-quality patient care, including taking samples to the lab, grabbing PPE, and picking up a prescription from the pharmacy. 

While offloading the time to complete transport tasks may seem insignificant, it’s anything but that at scale. In getting to know Diligent, I was surprised to learn that clinical staff spend an average of 30% of any shift on non-care activities (gathering medical supplies, delivering lab samples, fetching medications, etc.), all away from direct patient care. For example, nurses often spend 45 minutes on a single drug delivery. The opportunity for Moxi to perform repeatable, high-value tasks for overburdened staff members so they can spend more time with patients is massive, with Moxi already saving teams upwards of 200,000 hours.

This overwhelming dependence on humans, whether couriers, a dedicated staff of “runners” or care staff pulled off patient duties to run errands, is one reason that productivity in healthcare has stalled. It also contributes to the high turnover rates in healthcare today, increasing labor shortages that often lead to poor patient outcomes. While challenges in recruiting and retaining staff will only increase, Moxi helps hospitals offset the impact of this shortage in the market by allowing trained patient-facing staff to reduce the time spent on non-care tasks significantly. 

This distinction of Moxi as a “cobot” is very deliberate, as its purpose is to be an extension of a team, and its design is meant to foster trust between patients and staff. Moxi can’t be a caretaker and will never be one, but it exists to relieve overburdened workers and return them to the bedside. At the same time, Moxi is personable like a teammate (communicating through friendly beeps, occasionally displaying heart-shaped eyes, offering gentle high-fives), but also not too human-like, with team members still using a touchpad screen on its chest to tell Moxi where to go and what to do next.  

Hospitals are complex environments, busy with humans who move freely (many unfamiliar with robots), inherently unstructured, and functionally complicated (many doors and elevators). Building truly autonomous robots like Moxi that can reliably operate in such an environment is far more complex than it might seem, even with the advancements in AI in recent years. 

The company’s founders, Andrea Thomaz, PhD (CEO) and Vivan Chu, PhD (CTO), are experts in designing and building autonomous mobile robots for precisely those environments. A delivery task might seem simple, but it is challenging to replicate at scale within the controlled chaos of a hospital. For example, Moxi can successfully travel to a specific location in a hospital, pick up supplies, medications, or other items, and deliver them to any other point in the hospital. This hospital-wide navigation is primarily enabled by mobile manipulation skills, opening doors and pushing elevator buttons, taking care to be socially appropriate and not to bump into people along the way.

Diligent Robotics has accomplished so much and is on track to triple usage over the next 24 months. The company is just getting started and has a bright future ahead. 

With healthcare staffing needs continuing to exceed the labor available, hospitals must make the best use of their constrained workforces to meet demand. That means finding new efficiencies in previously unaddressable areas and offering staff members a return to their most fulfilling work. 

We’re excited to see what's next for Moxi and Diligent Robotics.