Relay+ is Savioke's next-generation service robot
Savioke has unveiled a new generation of its service robot called Relay+. The solution is designed for in-building delivery for hotel and office building owners and operators, foodservice operators, hospitals, and medical facilities.
Savioke was one of the first providers of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to commercialize its solution. CEO and co-founder Steve Cousins founded the company in 2013 after the well-known Willow Garage team split up to pursue various independent ventures. Savioke is also a pioneer of the robots-as-a-service (RaaS) business model, and Cousins has been a staunch advocate of RaaS.
With RaaS, hotel operators can acquire and deploy Relay+ and pay a base monthly subscription fee without having to go through a complicated device purchasing process.
“Service robots are becoming increasingly common in the hospitality and foodservice industries. Since 2014, our safe and efficient robots have completed more than 850,000 deliveries. Moreover, they can operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. They need to be trained only once, which allows staff to spend more time with guests and improve employee job satisfaction”
Relay+ is a redesigned version of the original Relay AMR, which offered a locked, controlled onboard storage container. Originally, the robot was designed to serve hotel room deliveries and featured a single container for delivering and storing items.
Relay+ offers three robot payload configurations:
- Relay+1 is a single lockable basket for transporting parcels, food delivery bags, and larger items.
- Relay+4 offers four individually addressable pull-out drawers for takeaway food.
- Relay+S offers open shelves that can be customized to customer needs.
Relay+ configuration options are set at the factory depending on the intended application. This redesign addresses one of several issues that limited the addressable market for the original Relay AMR.
Relay+1 is essentially a redesign of the original Relay AMR. It offers a large built-in lockable basket that can be unlocked by the user at the delivery point. Relay+1 is an ideal solution for hotel guest delivery operations or for delivering medicines and lab samples in hospitals, where secure transport is required.
Relay+4 offers four lockable drawers for storing products, which can also be closed or secured during transport. Relay+S offers an open shelving option for the payload. This model is ideally suited for use in home restaurants, where Relay+4 can deliver food from the kitchen to the guest's table.
All Relay+ configurations come with a new mechanically driven elevator button "pusher" that eliminates the need for electronic communication with the elevator controller. Savioke positions this feature as a "quick install" capability, since the robot uses a machine vision camera to identify call and floor buttons and then positions the device to press the buttons manually, just as a person would.
This new solution addresses one of the most serious obstacles to deploying the Relay robot. Implementing automatic elevator calling is a huge challenge. The easiest part is developing an electronic interface for the elevator controller, along with the software to manage all of it.
The industry's "dirty" secret is that local laws often restrict the automation that can be used to control an elevator carrying people or to bypass it. Local fire departments have different requirements for elevator control during emergencies, as well as different liability requirements.
In addition, each building may have an elevator controller of a different generation, which means that installing, testing, and certifying a modified elevator controller requires permits, inspections, and a contract with the local elevator maintenance company. All of this slows deployment, and the total cost of installing an elevator controller can exceed the price of the service robot.
Savioke and all other service robot providers in the industry have recognized the enormous difficulty of deploying elevator control in commercial buildings. As a result, this obstacle has slowed the expected pace of adoption of multi-floor service robots. Savioke's mechanically driven solution with the new Relay+ is a new attempt to avoid this specific deployment problem, since almost every hotel has multiple floors and an elevator.
“Relay+ is a true game changer in service automation. Thanks to its customizable payload and quick installation capability, these robots can be quickly integrated into property operations and put to work fast, delivering maximum benefits to customers”
With the original Relay, Savioke was primarily limited to the hotel business. Relay+ now allows the company to easily expand into restaurants and other service sectors, drawing on its more than eight years of autonomous operation and field experience.
