HOSPI: a delivery robot that sold two, came back, and worked 12 years in a hospital

A first model that sold two, and a second try

HOSPI is an autonomous delivery robot that Panasonic built to carry medicine and specimens inside hospitals. According to IEEE Spectrum, Panasonic had worked on it since 2004. The first version was too expensive and not capable enough to compete with a hospital’s existing infrastructure, and it sold two units. A new model arrived in 2013. It needs no separate tracks or path guides, uses laser sensors to read its surroundings, and moves around people and objects. Its medicine cabinet has security features.

Trials in 2010, sales in 2013, Singapore in 2015

Panasonic began testing HOSPI in 2010 at a hospital in Osaka and found that routine errands such as moving medicine and samples took a lot of staff time. It announced commercialization in October 2013 and did not disclose a price, saying it varies by facility. In 2014 Spectrum reported that each robot cost $100,000 and that infrastructure cost several hundred thousand dollars more. The same article said five robots were working at Matsushita Memorial Hospital and had cut delivery times by more than 30 percent. In February 2015 four units began experimental use at Changi General Hospital in Singapore, the first hospital outside Japan to use HOSPI. They rode lifts between buildings and delivered medicine, specimens and case notes around the clock.

Twelve years of work, then a replacement

Selina Seah, Assistant Chief Executive Officer of Changi General Hospital, said at the start that “HOSPI can help us save manpower and time in a simple and practical way.” In May 2026 Matsushita Memorial Hospital in Moriguchi, Osaka, held an event to replace its old HOSPI with a new one. The old unit had run for 12 years without an accident. Staff said it gave them more time with patients and covered staff shortages on weekends and nights. The new unit has much better battery performance. HOSPI Trail went on sale in September 2023. It leaves its cart at the destination and moves on, so no one has to be there to receive the delivery. Panasonic reported adoption at 9 hospitals in Japan and 2 overseas by the end of fiscal 2022, and at 10 in Japan and 2 in Singapore in December 2023.

A robot that never talked and stayed on the job

HOSPI does not speak or make faces. It carries medicine and specimens. Its first model sold two units, yet it came back in 2013 and in 2026 is still listed on Panasonic’s product page as made to order. HOSPI’s newest model started from requests by customers who had already adopted HOSPI.

What can a robot be trusted to leave behind when no one is there to receive it?

What we haven’t confirmed

• The total number of units sold or in operation (the only figures published are five at Matsushita Memorial and four at Changi General Hospital)
• Any price after 2014, including for HOSPI Trail
• Who measured the 30 percent cut in delivery times that Spectrum reported, and how
• Whether the variants tested at a hotel and an airport in 2017 (signage, heavier loads) ever went on sale