A hitch-hiking robot is about to attempt a journey across the US

9 months ago

Most people are a bit wary about picking up hitch-hikers – but imagine if the would-be passenger was a robot.

Meet hitchBOT – a hitch-hiking robot depending on the kindness and curiosity of strangers to get it from Salem, Massachusetts, on the east coast of the US to San Francisco, more than 3,000 miles away on the west of the states.

Frauke Zeller, one of the creators and an assistant professor in professional communication at Toronto’s Ryerson University, said: “We want to see what people do with this kind of technology when we leave it up to them.

“It’s an art project in the wild — it invites people to participate.”

HitchBOT has already managed to catch lifts across Europe and Canada but when it departs today it is hoping to see Times Square, Mount Rushmore and the Grand Canyon.

The child-sized machine can’t move around itself so it truly relies on others to get from A to B.

HitchBOT has been built to deter thieves so its body is a bucket and it has yellow gardening gloves so it looks less expensive, and approachable of course.

Ready for the USA

David Harris Smith, the other creator and an assistant professor in communication studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, said: “It has a really low-tech look to it, something we dubbed the ‘yard-sale aesthetic.

“The head is actually an acrylic cake-saver.”

But hitchBOT has a GPS to track its location and randomly takes a photo every 20 minutes to document its travels. However, the team always seek permission from people photographed to use the pictures.

The robot has more than 30,000 followers on Twitter and lots of people have shared their hitchBOT selfies on the social media site.

“We want to create something that has a bit of narrative to it, a sense of adventure,” Smith added.

“We don’t really know what’s going to happen.”