After two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed nurses around the globe to their limits. With intense working conditions, hospitals overcapacity, huge infection rates and increased patient deaths, the Moxi robot hopes to alleviate stress and the levels of burnout many healthcare workers are currently experiencing.
Moxi is a specialised delivery robot and the brainchild of Andrea Thomaz and Vivian Chu from Diligent Robotics. They developed Moxi after noting the medical workforce shortage before the pandemic. Moxi is not there to replace human jobs with automation but instead is there to help with menial tasks such as delivering and retrieving medications, lab samples, PPE and other patient supplies.
Developed at the University of Texas, Moxi stands just under 2 metres tall. It has a robotic arm, LED eye expressions, artificial intelligence, safety sensors, secure storage and connects to Wi-Fi. Moxi is able to work side by side with staff and learns from them the more it is integrated into the workplace.
Moxi was first deployed in 2020, during which time Moxi underwent assessed trials at hospitals in Houston, Dallas, Texas and Galveston. The nurses that worked with Moxi reported having more energy and not having to worry about small tasks. They said that while Moxi did things slowly, it allowed nurses to dedicate their time to more important tasks. Mary Washington Hospital has had two Moxi robots working in the wards since February this year, and it is estimated to have saved staff around 600 hours of tasks.
There are currently 15 robots active in US hospitals, and an additional 60 are planned for release later this year.
