Robotic Ranger

In an ordinary lab at the Cuernavaca campus of the Monterrey Institute of Technology, about an hour's drive south of Mexico City, something stands out: a six-legged robotic spider about the size of a card table.

Called Mexexänthe, or Forest Spider, the spindly-legged robot can detect potential forest fires by trolling trails and transmitting images wirelessly through a dime-sized camera. A GPS-equipped infrared sensor detects hot spots.

"We got this idea to make an

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