Relay Robotics Deploys Autonomous Delivery Robots at HCA Florida JFK Hospital

Relay Robotics, a leader in autonomous delivery robots, has announced the new deployment of two robots, Dash and Daisy, at HCA Florida JFK Hospital in Atlantis, Florida. The deployment demonstrates how autonomous delivery technology can support clinical teams while operating within the complex infrastructure of a modern healthcare environment.

Hospitals operate around the clock, with medications, specimens, equipment, and other essential items constantly moving between departments. Even relatively simple deliveries can require clinical team members to leave their units or patient-care areas to transport an item elsewhere in the hospital.

Relay Robotics' autonomous delivery robots provide hospitals with another way to manage these routine trips. Dash and Daisy now work alongside hospital employees, assisting with routine, time-sensitive deliveries throughout the hospital, including transporting lab specimens, pharmacy orders, telemetry and monitoring equipment, and medications and lab materials to areas not served by a pneumatic tube system. The result is not about replacing people; the robots give hospital teams another tool to keep essential items moving reliably throughout the facility and enable staff to continue overseeing patient care, clinical decisions, and other responsibilities that require human expertise.

Deploying autonomous robots inside an operating hospital requires considerably more than navigating hallways. Robots must work safely within an environment that includes elevators, secure doors, fire and life-safety systems, hospital IT infrastructure, patients, visitors, and employees. For this deployment, Relay Robotics coordinated integration across multiple building and technology systems. The integration enables the robots to move independently between floors, pass through authorized secure doorways, and operate alongside existing life-safety systems without requiring major construction or physical tracks.

Sultan Mehrabi, CEO at Relay Robotics, stated:

"This deployment shows that autonomous delivery robots can succeed even in the most complex hospital environments. Integrating with elevators, secure doors, fire systems, and hospital IT all at once is not simple, but our team made it work—and that's exactly the kind of validation that matters as Relay Robotics grows within large health systems."

Relay robots use advanced LiDAR, sensors, and computer vision to navigate hospital environments. Authorized users can access secure, lockable compartments, load an item, and select its destination. The robot then travels autonomously through the hospital, navigating hallway traffic and interacting with integrated systems such as elevators and secure badge-access doors. At the destination, authorized personnel retrieve the delivery.

Key applications include lab specimen delivery from clinical areas to the laboratory, pharmacy delivery of medications and orders to designated departments, equipment delivery of telemetry and monitoring supplies between hospital areas, and tube-free area coverage supporting medication and laboratory transport in areas not connected to pneumatic tube systems.

Relay Robotics designs its robots specifically to operate in environments where people remain at the center of the experience. Relay robots maintain more than 99% delivery reliability, feature contact-free operation and easy-to-sanitize surfaces to support infection-control practices, and operate without physical tracks, allowing integration into existing hospital infrastructure without major facility modifications. Relay robots have achieved a 99.8% delivery success rate across more than 30 major U.S. hospitals and can complete more than 1,000 deliveries per month in a hospital environment.

Founded in 2013, Relay Robotics (formerly Savioke) is a leading supplier of autonomous service robots designed to work safely, securely, and reliably alongside people. Relay robots supplement staff across healthcare, hospitality, and commercial real estate environments and have completed more than 1.5 million deliveries worldwide. A typical hospital deployment, including integration hardware work, floor mapping, and staff training, takes approximately 8–12 weeks, with onsite installation generally taking 1–2 weeks.