Meridian, Idaho
hitchBOT, a hitchhiking robot with hopes to travel around the world, had her journey prematurely aborted in Philadelphia recently.
First a bit of background…
Here’s hitchBOT’s bio from her Web site:
I am hitchBOT — a robot from Port Credit, Ontario. My guardians are Dr. David Smith (McMaster University), and Dr. Frauke Zeller (Ryerson University). Growing up, I was surrounded by bright, intelligent, and supportive people who I am proud to call my family. I have one sibling, kulturBOT, who travels from one art gallery to the next, tweeting photos of the artwork and of the venues. kulturBOT is definitely not as good-looking or well-rounded as I am.
As a robot, I enjoy listening to electronic music. I currently have Mr. Roboto on repeat but the Blueman Group and Kraftwerk are also amazing. I also enjoy reading a lot of books, especially about philosophy and astrophysics – I guess that is what happens when a robot is influenced by both the sciences and humanities.
Simply put, I am a free-spirited robot who wants to explore the world and meet new friends along the way. I am an avid instagrammer and tweeter. On my downtime, I can appreciate a good game of trivia and would never pass up any opportunities to bake desserts.
hitchBOT was created as a social experiment to travel parts of the world by hitchhiking. She traveled through Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands before starting her journey through the USA recently.
While in the USA, she started crossing items off of her USA Bucket List by visiting Fenway Park in Boston. Side trips included a stop at Hasbro World to visit with Mr. Potato Head.
Alas while she was in Philly, she was vandalized. Her Canadian creators found out about her injuries when they received an image of her vandalized body.
hitchBOT‘s story is worth taking a look at, not because of the thugs who vandalized her, but because of the many good people who helped her see the world…
She was built with household items including a beer bucket and pool noodles. But her insides included a PC tablet, GPS tracker, and a camera. She could tweet thoughts and pictures throughout her journey. Interesting she could also recite facts about local areas thanks to Wikipedia downloads.
Because Rich and I aren’t traveling now, I think I’ll travel vicariously by reviewing all of hitchBOT‘s travels on her Web site.
Oh, and hitchBOT has a ‘cousin’ called kulturBOT 3.0 who travels to museums, musical performances, and other cultural events taking pictures and capturing audio files.
What fun!
hitchBOT links:
So sad about the end of his trip in America…. sigh.
It is a sad commentary on certain elements of our American society… 🙁