So many robots work at Changi General Hospital in Singapore that until recently it wasn't uncommon to find two delivery bots sitting in a hallway or outside an elevator in a standoff. Such impasses used to happen "several times a day," says Selina Seah, who directs the hospital's Center for Healthcare Assistive and Robotics Technologies. Unsure how to move around another object, or human passersby, the robots would simply freeze, each waiting for the other to move first. "The humans would have to actually go down and pull them apart," she says. Seah says Changi has about 50 robots, from eight manufacturers.

Imagine landing at a major airport and the only human official you meet on your way through the terminal is a customs officer. Singapore's Changi International Airport, voted the world's best for the past six years by Skytrax, is pursuing that goal of extensive automation with such vigor that it built an entire terminal to help test the airport bots of the future. Here's an idea of what Asia's second-busiest international airport is implementing. As a plane joins the long line to land, it's detected, identified and monitored by an array of cameras and technology that bypass the traditional control tower. Once at the gate, a laser-guided aerobridge positions itself to let passengers disembark, while automated vehicles below unload baggage, dodging others that are delivering robot-packed meals or processing cargo.

Ever been delayed on a flight because of straggling fellow passengers? That might be an annoyance of the past at Singapore's Changi airport, which is testing facial recognition systems that could, in future, help locate lost travellers or those spending a little too much time in the duty-free shops. Changi Airport, ranked the world's best for six years straight in a survey by air travel consultancy Skytrax, is looking at how it can use the latest technologies to solve many problems - from cutting taxiing times on the runway to quicker predictions of flight arrivals. It could be used to find late passengers at Singapore's Changi Airport It comes as the island state embarks on a'smart nation' initiative to utilise technology to improve lives, create economic opportunity and build community ties. However the proposed use of cameras mounted on lampposts that are linked to facial recognition software has raised privacy concerns.

Passengers' baggage is collected by robots, they relax in a luxurious waiting area complete with an indoor garden before getting a face scan and swiftly passing through security and immigration - this could be the airport of the future. It's a vision that planners hope will become reality as new technology is rolled out, transforming the exhausting experience of getting stuck in lengthy queues in ageing, overcrowded terminals into something far more pleasant. The changes also represent major challenges that could upend decades-old business models at major airports, with analysts warning operators may face a hit to their revenues to the tune of billions of dollars. Facial scanning in particular is generating a lot of buzz. Changi in the affluent city-state of Singapore, regarded as among the world's best airports, is set to roll out this biometric technology at a new terminal to open later this year.

SINGAPORE – Passengers' baggage is collected by robots, they relax in a luxurious waiting area and then get a face scan and swiftly pass through security and immigration -- this could be the airport of the future. Planners hope this vision will become reality as new technology is rolled out, transforming the exhausting experience of lengthy lines in aging, overcrowded terminals into something far more pleasant. The Asia-Pacific region has been leading the way but faces fierce competition from the Middle East as major hubs compete to attract the growing number of long-haul travelers who can choose how to route their journey. The regions "are the two leading pockets of technology growth because they are really competing to be the global hubs for air transportation," said Seth Young, director of the Center for Aviation Studies at Ohio State University. "If I'm going to fly from New York to Bangalore, do I transfer through Abu Dhabi or Dubai, or do I transfer through Hong Kong?

Passengers' baggage is collected by robots, they relax in a luxurious waiting area complete with an indoor garden before getting a face scan and swiftly passing through security and immigration -- this could be the airport of the future. It's a vision that planners hope will become reality as new technology is rolled out, transforming the exhausting experience of getting stuck in lengthy queues in ageing, overcrowded terminals into something far more pleasant. The Asia-Pacific has been leading the way but faces fierce competition from the Middle East as major hubs compete to attract the growing number of long-haul travellers who can choose how to route their journey. The Asia-Pacific has been leading the way toward the airports of the future. The regions'are the two leading pockets of technology growth because they are really competing to be the global hubs for air transportation,' Seth Young, director of the Center for Aviation Studies at Ohio State University, told AFP. 'If I'm going to fly from New York to Bangalore, do I transfer through Abu Dhabi or Dubai or do I transfer through Hong Kong?

Singapore's Changi airport is the best in the world and an awesome place to spend a long layover. So it's kind of a bummer that it's getting a real-time data system that will cut delays by rethinking its operations and streamlining how its moves planes, people, and personnel. It's easy to track people and goods as they move around these days, but that power hasn't really been put to use making airports less horrible. That's why ST Electronics, a subsidiary of Singapore's largest technology and defense contractor, ST Engineering, is partnering up with Changi on a solution called Intelligent Airport. The SimCity-esque system will collect information like precise aircraft arrival times, the location of airport assets and personnel, and crowd movement, and make it available in one place, so everything flows more smoothly and delays can be cut down.