Zeus Robotics: Reimagining Healthcare Logistics Through Autonomous Innovation

Zeus Robotics is redefining hospital operations with intelligent automation, aiming to alleviate the hidden logistical burdens faced by healthcare workers. Founded by Vivek Thankachan (CEO), Anandhu Sunos (CTO), and Amal M Ashok (CPO), the company was born out of real-world conversations with frontline medical staff — not theoretical whiteboard sessions. By developing autonomous robots that can navigate complex hospital environments, operate elevators, and handle deliveries without human handoffs, Zeus Robotics is creating scalable, cost-efficient solutions that integrate seamlessly into existing workflows. The result? A system that empowers clinicians to spend more time on patient care while reducing burnout and inefficiencies across healthcare facilities.

Business Now connected with Vivek Thankachan and his co-founders at Zeus Robotics for a group interview, exploring the inspiration behind their mission, how their flagship robot ZERA is redefining automation in healthcare, and what the future holds for hospital logistics.

BN: What inspired you to start Zeus Robotics, and how did you identify the opportunity within healthcare logistics that led to the development of your autonomous delivery robot?

Vivek Thankachan: Honestly, the idea for Zeus Robotics didn’t come from sitting in a lab. It came from real conversations with people on the front lines of healthcare.

A close friend of mine works as a nurse with the NHS in the UK. During a call, I’d hear about the constant pressure she was under — not just the emotional weight of patient care, but the non-stop physical demands. Running back and forth to labs, delivering medications, waiting for supplies to show up — these tasks weren’t why she became a nurse, but they took up a huge chunk of her day.

She once told me, “Sometimes I spend more time chasing equipment than I do with my patients.” That really stuck with me.

I started digging deeper and realized this wasn’t just her story — it’s a system-wide problem. Hospitals are complex, fast-moving environments, and there’s a massive opportunity to offload routine logistics using intelligent automation.

That’s where Zeus comes in. We’re building autonomous robots designed specifically for healthcare environments to handle those repetitive, time-consuming transport tasks reliably, safely, and without adding complexity for staff.

This isn’t about replacing people. It’s about freeing up clinicians to focus on what only they can do: care for patients. And in doing so, we help reduce burnout, improve efficiency, and ultimately raise the standard of care.

That’s the mission we’re building for.

In what ways do you believe your robots are different from existing solutions in the market, especially in terms of cost-efficiency and real-world deployment?

Anandhu Sunos: What sets Zeus Robotics apart from existing solutions is our focus on practicality, affordability, and true autonomy.

While many robots in the market are expensive, overengineered, or limited in real-world functionality, we’ve taken a completely different approach. Zeus is designed from the ground up to be cost-efficient and deployment-ready — with a modular system and subscription-based model that makes it easy for hospitals to adopt without heavy upfront investment.

But where we really stand out is in our real-world autonomy. Our robot isn’t just moving between points — it’s equipped with a vision-guided robotic arm that allows it to operate elevators, open doors, and provide seamless service across multiple floors. That means no human handoffs or limitations to a single area — it can complete the full delivery workflow independently.

Most importantly, we built Zeus by closely collaborating with hospital staff — nurses, lab techs, and logistics teams — to ensure it solves real problems without adding complexity. It’s not just a robot; it’s a tool that fits into the everyday rhythm of healthcare, built to scale and support those who keep our hospitals running.

How are you ensuring that the robots you design are adaptable to the diverse needs and workflows within different hospital environments?

Amal M Ashok: At Zeus Robotics, adaptability is at the core of our design philosophy. Hospitals are complex and each has its own workflows, layouts, and protocols — there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

To ensure our robots fit seamlessly into these diverse environments, we start by observing and collaborating closely with hospital staff — from nurses and lab technicians to facilities teams. Their insights guide how we design the robot’s routes, payloads, and interaction points.

Technically, we build flexibility into both hardware and software. Our vision-guided robotic arm allows the robot to interact with elevators, doors, and other infrastructure that varies from hospital to hospital, while our navigation system is dynamic and adaptive, capable of learning and adjusting to layout changes, obstacles, and real-time human traffic.

On top of that, the robot’s modular design lets hospitals customize payload compartments, interfaces, and even workflow integrations without requiring new hardware.

In short, adaptability comes from combining human insight with flexible, intelligent technology, so each Zeus robot can seamlessly integrate into the unique workflow of any hospital while reliably performing end-to-end logistics.

Can you share some of the key challenges you’ve faced while piloting with hospitals and how you’ve worked to overcome them?

Anandhu Sunos: We’re just about to roll out our first robot, ZERA, and while we haven’t started pilot testing yet, we’ve been preparing extensively to ensure it will succeed in real hospital environments.

One of the main areas we’ve focused on is navigation in dynamic, crowded spaces — hospitals are full of staff, patients, and equipment moving unpredictably, so ZERA’s AI-based navigation and advanced sensors have been designed to handle exactly that.

We’ve also built in adaptability for infrastructure, such as elevators and doors, using our vision-guided robotic arm. This allows ZERA to operate a variety of panels and handles autonomously, so it can serve multiple floors without needing human intervention.

Finally, we’re putting a lot of effort into human-centered design, ensuring that hospital staff will find ZERA intuitive and easy to integrate into their daily workflows. Our upcoming pilots will be the first opportunity to see ZERA in action, and we’re confident that it will demonstrate the efficiency, adaptability, and reliability we’ve designed into the system from day one.

Looking ahead, what do you envision as the next big step for Zeus Robotics in transforming healthcare logistics, and how do you plan to scale your technology across more hospitals or healthcare facilities?

Vivek Thankachan: Looking ahead, our vision at Zeus Robotics is to fundamentally transform how hospitals handle logistics, making repetitive, time-consuming tasks fully autonomous so that clinicians can focus on patient care.

The rollout of ZERA is just the first step — our goal is to evolve into a comprehensive, multi-floor, multi-department solution that can manage deliveries, lab samples, medications, and even sterile supplies across entire healthcare facilities.

Scaling will come from a combination of technology, partnerships, and modular deployment. On the technology side, ZERA is designed to be adaptable to different hospital layouts, elevator systems, and workflow protocols, so integration into new facilities is straightforward.

From a business perspective, our subscription-based model lowers the barrier for hospitals to adopt multiple units, enabling gradual scaling without massive upfront costs.

We also plan to work closely with early adopters to continuously refine our systems, gathering real-world data to improve efficiency, safety, and usability. Over time, we see Zeus Robotics becoming a standardized, plug-and-play solution for healthcare logistics — helping hospitals across regions reduce operational inefficiencies, lower staff burnout, and ultimately improve patient care on a broad scale.

For more information, visit: https://www.zeusrobotics.ai/ 

Follow LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zeus-robotics/