What does it take to keep one of the world’s most iconic hotels running around the clock? At Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, part of the answer is no longer human. It moves autonomously.

Marina Bay Sands is an icon of luxury hospitality: three towers, the famous Skypark, restaurants, entertainment, shopping, and one of the world’s most recognizable skylines. But behind every great guest experience lies a massive, invisible operational backbone.

Thousands of employees work behind the scenes every day. Food and supplies must move from loading bays to kitchens and cold storage. Amenities must reach housekeeping teams. Laundry must circulate through the property. Waste must be transported efficiently. Deliveries must cross busy corridors, negotiate slopes, and travel smoothly between floors and all without ever disrupting the guest experience.

At Marina Bay Sands, Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) are becoming a core pillar of that invisible infrastructure. What began as a supply-chain solution has evolved into something much bigger: a new model for autonomous logistics in hospitality.

From Factory Floors to the Heart of Hospitality

While Autonomous Mobile Robots are traditionally associated with manufacturing floors and industrial warehouses, Marina Bay Sands presented a fundamentally different and far more dynamic challenge.

The robots do not operate in a predictable, closed industrial environment. Instead, they navigate shared spaces alongside thousands of people, operating safely in busy corridors around the clock. Today, the fleet has grown to 23 robots.

These systems do not rely on rigid, fixed lines or complex infrastructure modifications. They sense their environment in real time, safely stop when people cross their path, and coordinate dynamically with one another to ensure obstacle-free journeys. Furthermore, they independently call elevators and travel seamlessly between floors.

Technology had to adapt to the hotel environment, not the other way around.

The most important number isn’t 23

At AGILOX, we believe that true innovation is ultimately about people. The most striking takeaway from this project isn’t just the size of the robot fleet; it’s the positive impact on the workforce. Rather than displacing jobs, the organization has upskilled and reassigned employees, empowering team members to manage, supervise, and work alongside the robotic fleet.

This approach was officially recognized when Marina Bay Sands received the Outstanding Business Innovation Award 2026 at the Singapore Tourism Awards. The award recognised the resort’s pioneering deployment of swarm robotics in a large-scale integrated resort and its ability to reduce reliance on manual labour while freeing employees to focus on better guest experiences. Technology becomes truly valuable when it improves the way people work.

What started with supply-chain deliveries, transporting raw food items and amenities from loading bays to kitchens and cold storage, quickly proved its scalability. Once the autonomous infrastructure was in place, the organization discovered that the same core capability could solve challenges far beyond the original application.

Closing the loop: smart waste management

Logistics in a resort do not end when ingredients arrive in the kitchen. Marina Bay Sands built an integrated strategy combining technology, food tracking, waste processing, and resource recovery.

While the current rollout features a total fleet of 23 robots, 3 AMRs are deployed for waste transport in this ongoing test phase, with a broader rollout planned for next year. Beyond waste management, future exploration also includes potential applications in laundry and housekeeping logistics.

The hardest part wasn’t the robot

Perhaps the most revealing aspect of the Marina Bay Sands story is that the technology itself was only one part of the challenge.

A factory environment is structured and predictable. Luxury resorts are fluid, busy, and shared.

People are everywhere, elevators are shared, corridors peak at specific times, and slopes must be navigated securely. The robots operate at controlled speeds and stop when people appear in their path. They were customised to handle slopes and to ensure that loads remain secure. Their integration with the building’s elevator systems allows them to request an elevator, enter it and travel to the correct floor.

People had to learn how to work with the robots.

Employees were trained to give the AMRs space, particularly when boarding elevators. Communication and change management became essential to making the robots part of everyday operations.

Instead of spending hours repeatedly moving goods through corridors, employees can now focus on supervision, optimization, and high-value hospitality tasks where human judgment counts most.