A Miami hotel has hired a robot to handle room service. Yotelpad, a 30-story building that's part hotel, part condominium, is employing three robot butlers for guests and residents. The nearly four-foot-tall purple robots get around on wheels and feature a cute, smiling face on a screen that greets guests as they arrive. A Miami hotel has hired a robot to handle room service. Yotelpad, a 30-story building that's part hotel, part condominium, is employing three robot butlers for guests and residents The machines can deliver room service, bring extra towels, give directions, chat with guests and play music.

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.