Ask HitchBOT, a charismatic robot that hitchhiked across Canada, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Victoria, British Columbia – a three-week, more than 6,000-kilometre journey.
HitchBOT successfully completed its mission, crossing the country with the help of 18 random guides and constantly updating its 35,100 followers, via Twitter, about the progress of its journey.
HitchBOT – which can hitchhike, but is unable to move on its own – used GPS and 3G connectivity for its mission, so that it knows its exact location and plans its route.
His face is made of LED lights and shows his expressions, his body is wrapped in solar panels, while his mind has been created with Cleverbot-based chatbot software (with voice recognition and speech capabilities).
HitchBOT can chat with drivers about various topics, using social media and Wikipedia APIs to extract information.
The smart and cute robot was created by researchers Frauke Zeller (Ryerson University) and David Smith (McMaster University), in collaboration with other researchers, in order to study issues related to the interaction of robots with humans and to test technologies in the field of artificial intelligence, speech recognition and processing.
