Relay Robotics Deploys Two Delivery Robots at HCA Florida JFK Hospital

Relay Robotics has deployed two autonomous delivery robots, named Dash and Daisy, at HCA Florida JFK Hospital in Atlantis, Florida, where they are handling routine, time-sensitive deliveries of specimens, medications, and equipment, the company announced on September 30, 2026.

Dash and Daisy now work alongside hospital employees, transporting lab specimens, pharmacy orders, and telemetry and monitoring equipment, and carrying medications and lab materials to areas not served by a pneumatic tube system.

The company said hospitals operate around the clock, with medications, specimens, equipment, and other essential items constantly moving between departments, and that even relatively simple deliveries can require clinical team members to leave their units or patient-care areas. The robots are intended to support rather than replace staff: healthcare professionals retain clinical judgment, patient interaction, and care, while the robots provide an additional resource for moving items throughout the hospital.

Integration with Hospital Building Systems

Deploying autonomous robots inside an operating hospital requires considerably more than navigating hallways, the company said, because 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.

“This deployment shows that autonomous delivery robots can succeed even in the most complex hospital environments,” said Sultan Mehrabi, CEO of Relay Robotics. Mehrabi said that integrating with elevators, secure doors, fire systems, and hospital IT all at once was not simple, but that his team made it work, and he described the result as the kind of validation that matters as Relay Robotics grows within large health systems.

How the Robots Operate

Relay robots use LiDAR, sensors, and computer vision to navigate hospital environments. Authorized users 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.

The company’s listed hospital use cases include lab specimen delivery, in which specimens move from clinical areas to the laboratory; pharmacy delivery of medications and pharmacy orders to designated departments; and equipment delivery that moves telemetry, monitoring equipment, and other supplies between hospital areas. The robots also cover medication and laboratory transport in areas not connected to pneumatic tube systems and work with elevators, secure doors, and life-safety infrastructure as part of a coordinated deployment.

According to Relay Robotics, contact-free operation and easy-to-sanitize surfaces support hospital infection-control practices. The company also said the robots can assist Emergency Department workflows, which depend on the timely movement of specimens, medications, equipment, and supplies, by handling delivery trips so clinical teams have another resource to keep items moving.

Track Record and Implementation Timeline

Relay Robotics reports that its robots maintain more than 99% delivery reliability and have achieved a 99.8% delivery success rate across more than 30 major U.S. hospitals, and that they can complete more than 1,000 deliveries per month in a hospital environment.

According to the company, 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. For an autonomous robot to move safely and reliably throughout a facility, it must work within the existing environment, and Relay Robotics said it coordinates with hospital teams and technology partners to enable those integrations.

Founded in 2013 and formerly named Savioke, the San Jose, California-based company describes itself as a leading supplier of autonomous service robots designed to work safely, securely, and reliably alongside people. The company said its robots have completed more than 1.5 million deliveries worldwide across healthcare, hospitality, and commercial real estate environments, and that its robots are deployed at nationally recognized healthcare organizations and major hospitality brands across the United States.