Care technology already helps with falls, medication, family contact and companionship. As AI and robotics improve, home assistants could become among the most useful machines we build.
Find UK personal alarms, medication dispensers, companion devices and sensible ways to keep in touch. The Care Technology Finder starts with what someone actually needs.
Worth checking this autumn: older landline alarms before the January 2027 digital switchover.
Figure has reported robot trials in unfamiliar homes; Kawasaki has unveiled a machine designed specifically for older people; Chery is taking pre-orders for a domestic humanoid. Follow these developments and their evidence.
Also newly launched in the UK: Mary, an AI companion inside an HMD flip phone.
Products, services and research projects relevant to UK homes.
Companion robots
by Service Robotics
A purpose-built digital companion linked to a remote-care platform.
Main limitation: It cannot provide physical care or guarantee that a prompted task has been completed.
View the reality checkRobotic pets
by Ageless Innovation
A responsive robotic cat that purrs, meows and reacts to touch.
Main limitation: It is a companion object, not a medical device, safety monitor or substitute for human contact.
View the reality checkRobotic pets
by AIST / PARO Robots
A sophisticated seal-shaped interactive robot used in care and clinical settings.
Main limitation: High cost, no practical-care function and not universally welcomed by users.
View the reality checkFall detection
by Taking Care
A home-and-garden alarm with automatic fall detection and 24-hour monitoring.
Main limitation: No fall detector catches every event, and the wearable still has to be worn.
View the reality checkMedication
by Pivotell
A lockable rotating dispenser that presents the scheduled dose and sounds an alarm.
Main limitation: It cannot confirm that medicine was swallowed and is unsuitable for some medicines or regimens.
View the reality checkHome monitoring
by Just Checking
Camera-free movement and door sensors that build a chart of activity at home.
Main limitation: Movement data cannot explain why something happened or guarantee wellbeing.
View the reality checkManufacturers are tackling the problem that held domestic robots back for years: learning a task in one controlled setting and getting it to work in a different home. Figure says Helix 2.5 tidied rooms, folded towels and made beds across 30 unfamiliar US homes in September, without retraining for those houses.
In October, Kawasaki unveiled Home LEO, built around the needs of older people, with trial work ahead and a Japanese launch target in fiscal 2028. AiMOGA also announced global pre-orders for Mobo, a humanoid companion aimed partly at home support.
These are different stages of development, and none establishes safe unattended physical care. They do show that domestic robotics is becoming a serious engineering and manufacturing goal, with more than one viable approach.
Read the October robotics update
Choose any areas that matter.
Answer a few questions about the person, the home and what they need help with. The finder suggests relevant types of technology and points to detailed guides.
Start the finderGrades reflect the quality and independence of the available evidence. Each product page shows the sources behind its assessment.
Read the methodologyRelatively strongIndependent controlled evidence or a substantial credible research base.
Promising or establishedUseful evidence with important limitations or implementation dependence.
LimitedSmall studies, observational evidence or indirect support.
Mainly claimsManufacturer-led evidence or plausible function without useful independent testing.
Care technology and home robots
Care robots, companion devices, telecare, embodied AI and the technologies shaping future independent living.
UK personal alarms and landlines · January 2027
The UK telephone network is changing by January 2027. Check older personal alarms, ask your provider about digital compatibility and arrange a real test before your line changes.
Companion robots available now
Compare Joy for All, Chongker and PARO robotic pets for dementia and older people in the UK, including evidence, cost, practical differences and who may actually enjoy them.
Alarms, watches and sensors
A clear comparison of monitored alarms, smartwatches, fall-detection wearables and home sensors, including the failure modes manufacturers prefer in smaller type.
From alarms to locked doses
How simple reminders, rotating dispensers and connected alerts differ, and what none of them can prove.
Reassurance with less intrusion
Movement, door, appliance and environmental sensors can show patterns without filming someone at home. Here is what those patterns can and cannot tell you.
Humanoid tracker
Follow production targets, order routes, home demonstrations and UK activity across the machines most relevant to future care.
Latest: AiMOGA Mobo’s global pre-order announcement and Figure’s new home-task tests. Kawasaki’s Home LEO prototype is covered separately because it is not a humanoid.
Open the tracker
