The robots helping children through cancer treatment visited FOS Future Lab 2026

When we initially met the Mirokaï back in May, they had become the first companion robots in the world to accompany children inside a radiotherapy room. That idea has now crossed the Channel from the Montpellier Cancer Institute to Guy’s and St Thomas’ in London.

“We’re really trying to assist care teams. It’s a staff augmentation solution for complex situations like children with cancer treatment. Usually, they go on their own in the radiotherapy room, and it’s really scary and very stressful. The robot accompanies them, stays with them and tells stories. It’s been completely transformative for the children, the family, and also the staff,” Blanchot said.

The stakes are simple enough for anyone who has ever sat in a hospital waiting room. Children who have a friend in the room are calmer, and calmer children mean faster sessions.

None of this, Blanchot insists, was possible with robots that look like us. “Our vision is really to bring some joy and magic into the world. If we have to work with and live with more machines, at least they can be friendly, endearing and lovable.”

A worker, not a friend

The obvious worry, raised at FOS Future Lab by a parent in the audience, is whether children come to love these machines a little too much. At Seattle Children’s Hospital, the parents’ association asked the same question, so the rules were written together.

“We’re working with the hospital and the parents so that the robot is a care worker, part of the hospital, working there for the time you’re there and then that’s it. It’s not a friend. It’s a worker. And when you leave, you say goodbye.”

For the same reason, the robots never run sessions unsupervised, and one-to-one heart-to-hearts are off the menu until someone decides what happens to the things people confide in them. “It’s our responsibility to decide what guardrails we want to put around AI, whether it’s your phone or those robots.”

The man who danced again

The Mirokaï also work in elderly care, running quizzes, song-guessing games and chair exercises, and delivering the endless gentle reminders that exhaust human staff, like drinking water during a heatwave. They speak dozens of languages, which in American care homes has unlocked memories in residents who rarely hear their mother tongue.

“We had a resident who lost his wife a few months ago, and he said, ‘I will never dance again. I will never get out of my room again’. He heard about the robot, came down, and then just started to resocialise again,” said Blanchot. “That’s my hope, that what those machines will do is encourage people to talk and through the robots create more human connections.”

What Mirokaï makes of Goodwood

What did the robot think? Interviewed in its own voice, Mirokaï was diplomatic about the competition. Asked the coolest thing it had seen at FOS Future Lab, it chose fellow exhibitors Deep. “The coolest thing I’ve seen is the underwater habitat technology. Imagine living in the ocean. There’s also cool space stuff like NASA’s Moon mission.”

Its five-year forecast was suitably on-message: “In five years, everyone will be more connected through technology. Maybe even with more personal robots like me.”

Blanchot, attending FOS Future Lab for the first time, sounded almost as charmed as the visitors. “It’s been completely mind-boggling. The size of the event, the kindness of the people and the organisation are incredible. Everybody wants to interact with the robot. The kids love it and their parents ask questions, it’s wonderful.”

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Main image photography by Sam Stephenson.

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