ABB Robotics, Roche Diagnostics collaborate to bring physical AI to laboratories

ABB Robotics announced a global collaboration with Roche Diagnostics to develop and bring to market new robotic offerings for clinical laboratories.

The company said that the collaboration with Roche lays the foundation for a new era of connected labs that are flexible, fast and reliable to meet the growing demands of modern healthcare.

Range of ABB Robotics’ technologies to be deployed

ABB, citing a January 2024 report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), said that roughly 70% of treatment decisions rely on diagnostic testing.

As a result, the healthcare industry is under increasing strain, with laboratories facing workforce shortages as fewer professionals enter demanding and intensive lab roles. ABB said that these concerns, coupled with aging populations and a growing shift toward personalized medicine, have made the need to accelerate testing and improve efficiency greater than ever before.

“The collaboration is a major milestone in accelerating lab automation, introducing more autonomous and versatile robotics (AVR) into clinical laboratories at scale,” said Marc Segura, president of ABB Robotics. “With Roche, we will be able to bring the latest physical AI to labs all around the world, addressing major challenges that are hindering labs from providing the best outcomes for patients.”

ABB Robotics said that the collaboration with Roche will focus on creating automation systems at scale, which will accelerate critical lab processes such as sample preparation and intra-logistics to help laboratories provide faster and more efficient diagnostics for improved patient care.

The company said that the first applications under the collaboration are focused on two important laboratory areas. With Roche’s pathology business segment, ABB Robotics will develop offerings that support slide handling and organization, helping laboratories move toward more digital, connected workflows.

In central diagnostics labs - Roche’s largest laboratory testing segment - ABB Robotics said that it will use autonomous mobile manipulators to move samples and materials between instruments, providing greater connectivity, flexibility and consistency for faster processing.

ABB Robotics said that these applications represent a strong opportunity to enhance efficiency in clinical diagnostics - robots can take on repetitive tasks, freeing lab staff to focus on more critical work, while adding flexibility to existing laboratory automation.

“Partnering with ABB Robotics allows us to bring a new level of robotic automation to laboratories of all sizes - it's about vital flexibility and consistency in clinical diagnostics,” said Marc Boehm, lifecycle leader for Core Lab at Roche Diagnostics. “By automating repetitive tasks, we empower laboratory staff to focus on complex analysis, which directly accelerates the journey from diagnosis to critical treatment decisions for patients.”     

ABB Robotics said that it will be responsible for developing industrial-grade lab technologies, drawing on its automation experience, global manufacturing presence and its broad AI-powered robotics portfolio, which is orchestrated by ABB Robotics’ software.

Roche will bring in its diagnostic experience and application knowledge to ensure the technologies are tailored to the needs of laboratories in real clinical settings.

ABB Robotics said that the collaboration with Roche reflects its broader strategy of working with partners across the laboratory ecosystem to address critical bottlenecks in lab operations. By utilizing physical AI - where robots learn from real-world data and adapt to dynamic environments - ABB Robotics said that it is advancing scalable, flexible lab automation offerings that improve efficiency and support faster decision-making to help laboratories deliver more reliable patient outcomes.