Transport robots in hospitals: material, linen, medication

Walking distance is the most expensive nursing service nobody bills for

In every hospital, skilled staff walk routes every day that a machine could drive: linen, material, samples, beds. According to the OECD, Europe is short of around 1.2 million healthcare professionals today – every hour spent on transport is missing somewhere else.

The answers so far have been construction projects: pneumatic tubes, rails, heavy-duty AGVs. If you were not rebuilding, you were not a candidate.

Our answer: an autonomous mobile robot that drives in existing corridors and lifts and can be retrofitted. No shaft, no conversion, no downtime during rollout.

What a transport robot does in a hospital

A transport robot in a hospital is an autonomous mobile robot that moves material, linen, samples and consumables between wards, laboratory, pharmacy and logistics. uLog comes in staged payloads, including under-ride and lifting variants up to 600 kg. Tasks, routes and permissions are managed in uGo+.

• Recurring routes triggered by schedule or event, unaccompanied
• Retrofittable into existing buildings – no structural work
• Shelves and load carriers driven under and lifted instead of repacked
• Floor changes with a connection to the lift control
• Proof of completed tasks, times and handovers in uGo+

Four ways to move material through a building

Transport inside a hospital is not a new problem, and there is more than one good answer to it. Which one fits depends on the building, on the type of item and on which routes come up regularly. Here are the four common approaches with their strengths and their limits:

In practice these approaches rarely compete. Hospitals with a working pneumatic tube keep using it for small, urgent items. Where a heavy-load system runs, it stays. The autonomous mobile robot covers the area in between: recurring routes with trolleys and load carriers that have had to be staffed until now – and routes for which no track was ever built.

Which routes qualify in your building is what the route analysis shows. That comes first, not the choice of device.

Sample logistics: the route between ward and laboratory

With samples, time runs alongside. The span between collection and analysis largely accumulates outside the laboratory: on the transport route, and before it, while people wait until a trip is worth making.

This is where scheduled and on-demand transport comes in. An autonomous transport robot runs to a schedule or on request – for a single item, and outside peak hours. How much the time to the laboratory shortens depends on your routes, the frequency and how collection is organised today; in buildings that currently batch, the larger effect is usually in the waiting time before transport rather than in travel speed. What that means for your building is something we calculate on your actual routes.

For items that have to be transported with access protection and handed over traceably, there is the secured variant – described on Secured transport in hospitals. Which types of item can run that way in your building depends on your internal rules and on requirements for temperature, labelling and documentation; we clarify that before the quote.

In the laboratory itself, transport does not stop at the door: uLab Mobile takes over samples at the bench and moves between instruments. That is covered on Mobile laboratory robot.

The pre-analytical phase as a whole remains your process: temperature control, labelling, centrifugation and documentation. Transport becomes schedulable and logged – that is the contribution the system makes.

Your robot. Your data.

A robot that works inside your building sees and hears things that are nobody’s business outside it. That is why AI processing runs on the device, not in someone else’s cloud. No permanent internet connection is required for operation, which makes closed hospital, care-home and laboratory networks possible. What is generated in your building stays in your building: you decide what is stored, analysed or deleted. Through uGo+ you define who may start which tasks, and mission reports are auditable – the basis for a data protection impact assessment, your works council and any inspection.

Buy or rent: Robot-as-a-Service

You can buy, or rent under Robot-as-a-Service. With rental you pay a recurring monthly fee that covers hardware, software maintenance and service together – from the operating budget rather than the capital budget. That is the usual route for a pilot and for a staged rollout across several sites.

An honest note: renting is not automatically cheaper than buying – it shifts risk and timing. What works for your organisation depends on term, quantity, available funding and budget structure. We work through that openly in a first conversation instead of selling you a model. We do not publish prices, because configuration and integration scope decide the number – a figure without that context would be misleading.

How the model of use works and what the quote sets out is described on Robot-as-a-Service.

Frequently asked questions

How does a transport robot differ from an AGV or a pneumatic tube system?

Heavy-duty AGVs and pneumatic tube systems require tracks, shafts or guide lines. An autonomous mobile robot runs on existing routes and can be retrofitted; what your building needs to provide is shown by the site survey.

What payload is possible?

The uLog range covers staged payloads, including under-ride and lifting variants. Which variant fits depends on your load carriers and routes; the figures per variant are on the product pages.

Can the robot use lifts?

Yes, with a connection to the lift control. Without it, the robot works on one floor. We assess this before quoting.

Does the robot move safely among people?

Sensor fusion detects obstacles and leads to avoidance or a safe stop. The systems are designed for operation in publicly accessible areas.

What happens in the event of a failure?

Tasks can be rerouted in uGo+ or taken over manually. Service availability and response times are set in the contract.

Will a transport robot replace our pneumatic tube?

Usually not. Pneumatic tube systems have short transit times for small items and remain useful for that. An autonomous mobile robot takes over recurring routes with trolleys and load carriers, and routes for which no track exists. Running both side by side is the normal case.

How does deployment affect the time to the laboratory?

That depends on distance, floor changes, frequency and how collection is organised today. Where samples are currently batched until a trip is worth making, the larger effect lies in that waiting time. We calculate it on your actual routes rather than quoting a general figure.

What does our building need to provide?

Sufficiently wide routes, suitable doors and lifts, network coverage and charging points. What is already there and what needs to be added is shown by the site survey before the quote.

Sources: OECD, Health at a Glance: Europe 2024 · German Federal Statistical Office, nursing workforce projection, press release of 23 January 2024 · German Economic Institute (IW), STEM Spring Report 2026.