Automaton

Ney Robinson Salvi dos Reis, a Brazilian roboticist who leads a group developing an environmental robot for the Amazon jungle, writes to report important developments.

No, not a major advance in the robot's active suspension system. Not a breakthrough in its machine vision scheme either. The big news, Reis reports, is that the robot, called Hybrid Environmental Robot, was the inspiration for a vehicle used in this year's famed Rio de Janeiro carnival.

The vehicle was part of the presentation by the carnival group Grande Rio. The photo shows the vehicle parading through Sapucaí Avenue in Rio de Janeiro, and although you can't see them, Reis and his team of researchers were right there, dancing samba along with their "robot."