From left to right, Siddhartha Srinivasa and Zhaoyin Jia. | Source: Diligent Robotics
Diligent Robotics Inc., which provides the Moxi mobile manipulator for hospitals, this week added two members to its AI advisory board. Siddhartha Srinivasa, professor of robotics at the University of Washington, and Zhaoyin Jia, distinguished engineer specializing in robotic perception and autonomy on robots that operate alongside people in real-world environments, are both joining the team.
The company launched its AI Advisory Board late last year to guide its next generation of AI development and ensure that its robots are grounded in responsible practices. The board brings together academics, technology leaders, and industry experts. These experts provide strategic counsel as Diligent Robotics continues to scale its fleet of Moxi robots across health systems nationwide.
“Since launching the board last fall, we have already seen the tremendous value of bringing such accomplished advisors alongside us,” said Andrea Thomaz, Ph.D., co-founder, and CEO of Diligent Robotics. “This group combines our proven success in real-world healthcare settings with the insight and vision of world-class researchers who have built real-world autonomous products at scale. Together, we are advancing the frontiers of embodied AI and setting higher standards for how robots can work seamlessly with people to solve meaningful challenges.”
By combining decades of academic research with practical expertise, the advisory board will work closely with Diligent Robotics to push the boundaries of embodied AI. Its focus on collaborative robotics ensures that Moxi and future generations of Diligent’s robots will continue to lead the field in how robots interact, adapt, and learn from the people they support, said the company.
Other AI advisory board members include:
- Jeannette Bohg, director of the Stanford AI Lab’s Interactive Perception and Robot Learning Lab.
- Oliver Kroemer, Carnegie Mellon University
- Lerrel Pinto, New York University and founder of the General-purpose Robotics and AI Lab (GRAIL).
Srinivasa and Jia bring unique expertise to the board
Diligent Robotics said it is building its AI advisory board on the foundation it set last fall. The latest member bring deep expertise in robotic manipulation, autonomous mobility, and large-scale AI systems, according to the Austin, Texas-based company.
Srinivasa is the professor of robotics at the University of Washington and an IEEE Fellow. He is internationally recognized for advancing robotic manipulation and human-robot interaction. His career spans both pioneering research and real-world deployments.
His work has produced influential algorithms as well as systems like HERB and ADA, which have become benchmarks in the field, said Diligent. Srinivasa previously led teams at Amazon Robotics, and he led the AI Research team at Cruise.
Zhaoyin Jia is a distinguished engineer whose career bridges research and industry leadership in computer vision and robotic perception. He has held senior roles at self-driving vehicle developers Cruise, DiDi, and Waymo, where he helped build large-scale autonomy to operate in complex, unpredictable environments. Diligent said Jia’s expertise in designing robust robotics systems will add critical insights into how Diligent can deploy AI safely and reliably.
“I’m incredibly excited to have Zhaoyin and Sidd on the AI Advisory Board. Both bring extraordinary depth of knowledge in robotics, with track records of not just advancing research but repeatedly building state-of-the-art, real-world robotic systems,” said Rashed Haq, chief technology officer at Diligent Robotics. “Their ability to take complex ideas and turn them into working systems that operate at scale is rare and inspiring. Having them on the team ensures our goals are shaped by their wisdom and insights, driving us toward building robots that achieve exceptional performance.”
Diligent establishes key partnerships
Founded in 2017, Diligent Robotics has built “socially intelligent, AI-native” mobile manipulators to improve workflow efficiency. The company said its robots are helping nurses in more than 25 hospitals across the U.S.
Moxi is designed to aid with routine tasks such as delivering medications and laboratory samples. The robot can free staffers to care directly for patients and help prevent burnout, Diligent asserted. The system has already saved hospital staffers nearly 600,000 hours and completed over 1 million tasks successfully, including 300,000 pharmacy deliveries, it claimed.
In September, the company was chosen for the inaugural cohort of the Physical AI Fellowship. The program provides technical and go-to-market guidance, compute and hardware resources, and access to a global robotics network.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), NVIDIA, and MassRobotics said they designed the fellowship program to accelerate startups building intelligent systems that will operate in the physical world.
Diligent also recently partnered with Swisslog Healthcare to bring autonomous last-mile delivery robots to hospitals across the U.S. The collaboration complements Swisslog Healthcare’s transport and pharmacy automation suite with Moxi.
Editor’s note: Vivian Chu, co-founder and chief innovation officer of Diligent Robotics, will be speaking at RoboBusiness 2025, which takes place Oct. 15 and 16 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. She will discuss how real-time adaptation, vision-language agents, and behavior tree recovery help Moxi operate in complex, human-facing environments.
RoboBusiness, the premier event for commercial robotics developers and suppliers, will be co-located with DeviceTalks West, which serves the medical device industry. Registration is now open.
