How a robot could be grandma’s new carer

With an ageing population and care costs rising, robots and smart homes may be a solution. But would you want a plastic dog to look after your loved ones?

Sitting in a studio in Kensington, London, the designer Sebastian Conran walks me through a worst-case scenario. "Basically, what it's looking for is a break in routine," he explains, pointing to a drawing of an elderly woman, collapsed on the floor of her home. "There's an event. The e-sensor in the room notices that you've fallen over. MiRo goes to investigate."

MiRo is a robotic dog. There is an early model close to where we are sitting. Its head sits above a torso without arms or legs, and its cartoonish eyes stare out below alert ears embedded with speakers. Conran's company describes it as a biomimetic companion robot, and says it will eventually work with facial recognition technology to make life easier for its owner - to prompt them to take medicine, or to remind them of visitors' names, or to question them if it thinks they're in trouble. Conran tells me to think of it as a cross between a pet and Radio 4's John Humphrys.