Hitchhiking Robot Begins Journey at PEM

A small, Canadian robot will be beginning his journey across the United States with a stop at the Peabody Essex Museum on Thursday and Friday.

The hitchBOT is a robot from Port Credit, Ontario.

Last summer, the hitchBOT hitchhiked across Canada from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Victoria, British Columbia. Additional travels took the robot to European sites such as Germany and the Netherlands.

This year, the hitchBOT is heading south, where it (with the help of its co-creators, Dr. David Harris Smith of McMaster University and Dr. Frauke Zeller of Ryerson University) hopes to hitchhike across the USA from Salem to San Francisco.

Some of the possible stops on the way across the country include includes a number of historic sites like Time Square in New York City; Millennium Park in Illinois; Mount Rushmore in South Dakota; and the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

HitchBOT, will begin its U.S. hitchhiking adventure with a kick-off party on Thursday, July 16, at the Peabody Essex Museum during PEM/PM, the museum’s monthly evening party series, according to museum officials.

On Friday, the hitchBOT will begin thumbing across the country at spot near the museum.

“This trip will be unlike any other, as hitchBOT’s goal is not only to hitchhike across the U.S., but also to visit a number of historic sites and monuments,” said Smith. “We’re hoping to see hitchBOT involved in some creative adventures while on the road.”

The project was originally co-designed by Smith and Zeller to see whether robots could trust humans.

“HitchBOT was very well received as it made its way across Canada, Germany and the Netherlands – proving that robots can indeed trust humans,” said Zeller.

Fans are encouraged to follow hitchBOT’s journey at hitchbot.me, and on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram. HitchBOT also invites users to share their hitchhiking stories and pictures using #hitchbot on Twitter and Instagram.

Photo Credit: David Harris Smith