Moxi Nursing Robots Help Reduce Muda

Serve Robotics recently acquired Diligent Robotics in a $29 million deal, adding to its lineup of advanced robotic technology solutions.

Diligent’s Moxi hospital robots save nurses time and motion, increasing productivity and allowing them to spend more time by patient bedsides.

Video Spotlight:  

• These robots can help ‘tend to patients’ with nursing shortage, says Serve Robotics CEO  (Jan 24, 2026, FOX Business)

This post is based on The Robot Report article, Serve Robotics to acquire hospital logistics provider Diligent Robotics, by Brianna Wessling, January 20, 2026; the NCTV17 article, Moxi robots at Edward Hospital save nurses over 100 million steps, by Anulika Ochuba, June 27, 2025; and the YouTube video in the Spotlight. Image source: Ociacia/Shutterstock

Discussion Questions:

1. What can the Moxi nursing robot do, and how is this different from Serve Robotics’ other robots?

Guidance: Prior to the acquisition, Serve Robotics focused on delivering items, primarily food, in outdoor environments. Its technology revolved around navigation. The company had grown from 100 food delivery robots at the beginning of 2025, to 2000 robots by year’s end.

The Moxi nursing robots, by contrast, have advanced operating systems that allow them to operate in crowded indoor environments with the added benefit of manipulation, meaning they have an arm that can interact with things like doors and elevators.

To date, Moxi robots have completed more than 1.25 million tasks in 25 hospitals across the United States.

2. How does the Moxi robot improve productivity and minimize waste, or muda, in a hospital environment?

Guidance: On January 12, 2026, 15,000 nurses in New York went on strike, with demands that included increased pay and safer staff-to-patient ratios. The strike lasted 41 days. Moxi robots may be a possible solution to alleviate some pressure and help chronically short-staffed hospitals across the U.S.

Moxi robots can perform many fetching and delivery functions, such as picking up and delivering prescriptions, lab samples, up to three liters of fluids, or other hospital supplies. Their support could free up nurses to spend more time with patients, assisting them with medical needs or just interacting with them to help them feel less anxious.

At Endeavor Health Edward Hospital in Illinois, the Moxi robot has made a marked difference. In the first three years of use, two robots are estimated to have travelled 48,000 miles to make over 100,000 deliveries. They have saved nurses over 100 million steps. Wasted motion is one type of “muda” that lean systems try to minimize or eliminate. In this instance, rather than eliminate the movement itself, however, Moxi frees nurses from it and allows them to spend their time on higher level tasks.