Those concerned that robots are taking over the world can rest easy-for now. Though the androids have proved useful at performing ordinary tasks, they are not ready for prime time. At least that appears to be the case at Japan’s cutting-edge Henn-na Hotel chain where over half of the robot staff is being replaced by humans.

The first Henn-na Hotel opened in July 2015, where guests were greeted and checked-in by either a family-friendly English-speaking dinosaur robot or a Japanese-speaking humanoid. Autonomous robots stood ready to help guests carry luggage to their rooms, while a cute doll-shaped android called Churi, placed inside each room, provided them with information about nearby attractions. Even the hotel’s garbage cans were robotic.

Not surprisingly, the lodging, recognized in 2016 as the world’s first robot-staffed hotel by Guinness World Records, drew in curious visitors from all around the world.

But as the years have passed, the hotel’s main draw — its employees — are becoming less of a novelty (新颖) and more of a bother. Also as the robots are “aging”, they are costing more to repair and maintain. Earlier this month, the hotel chain’s parent company H. I. S. announced that it had decided to “fire” over half of the robot employees and replace them with humans. Among them are the chain’s two robot receptionists. In addition to scaring young guests, they are also unable to photocopy guests’ passports-a requirement when checking into a Japanese hotel--forcing human employees to step in each time. Also, out are the cute Churi robots, which have proved unable to answer even the simplest questions and annoyed guests by interrupting their conversations.

While this is a setback, the company’s officials are not discouraged. They plan to continue with their ambitious expansion plans and believe the human-robot interaction is a learning process.“When you actually use robots, you realize there are places where they aren’t needed.” said one of the officials.

Fahad Azad, an engineer in India, invented a robot named DuctBot. The toy-car sized DuctBot measured 23 centimeters in length, 19 centimeters in width and 9 centimeters in height and weighed just two kilograms.

The robot is designed to snake through dark, narrow air conditioning ducts(管道) and clean them. A pair of LEDs fitted on the robot light up the dirty scenery, so it can be captured(抓拍) by a camera.

In order to control it more easily, Mr. Azad chooses to fix DuctBot on wheels. The robot can clean off lots of dirt, as well as dead pigeons and insects. Keeping indoor air in good quality and monitoring carbon-dioxide levels in buildings with central air conditioning is a challenge. It is important in some places where clean air can mean a difference between life and death, such as hospitals. Dirty air has a bad influence on peopled health.

EPSCO, a Dubai-based company which specializes in improving indoor air quality, read about Mr. Azad’s invention in a national newspaper after he had won an international robotics competition. EPSCO had cleaning equipment, but it needed someone to get into those ducts to do the dirty, dangerous work. Across India, for example, the task still falls to children. They are small enough to go through those ducts.

In 2005, Mr. Azad who was still at university decided to do something about it. Six years later his own company, Robosoft Systems, has Bluestar, EPSCO and the Indian Navy, some leading air condition makers, as partners.

Mr. Azad and his ten employees are currently exploring robot designs to examine oil tanks or sewage(污水) pipes. Their biggest challenge is to make the robots user-friendly enough. Mr. Azad hopes that the robot could eventually be operated not by engineers but by workers. There will be lots of difficulties they need to overcome in the future.

Most kids can’t sit still or join in any meaningful dialogue when having video chats with their family members. Nor would they watch the videos you made of yourself reading a favorite book. Now there’s a storytelling app born out of these problems.

Zoog is a new communication app designed to provide a creative way for distant (遥远的) and cross-general family members to stay connected. Through Zoog, users can make books become alive and interesting.

The Zoog app asks you to choose one of the many stories to read and then it offers advice and naturally adds special effects to make the story alive. Once you’ve recorded yourself reading the story, you can send it as a message to your little family member. This is a great benefit as you can record or view the story whenever it’s convenient (方便) to you.

One user, Sumit Suman, used Zoog when he traveled for business. He changed himself into an animated (动画的) frog in order to hold his five-year-old daughter’s attention on phone calls. He said that his daughter would not speak to him on the phone, so he used Zoog to change himself into a frog — Suman in animated frog dress — and now they read stories every night.

Zoog is a valuable tool and any grandparent can learn to use it easily and quickly. “What we set out to achieve was to enable grandparents to produce cool content. They usually have little understanding of technology,” said Oren. “But many grandparents are creating content on Zoog, which they are enjoying, and their grandchildren think this content is cool and love it,” he added.