When hitchBOT set out from Halifax in 2014, its destination was a few thousand kilometres away. Three weeks and 18 lifts later, the robot reached Vancouver Island on the Canadian west coast, making hitchBOT the first robot in the world to travel independently by hitch-hiking.
Many people were enthusiastic about taking him along and the media on every continent in the world reported on his journey. hitchBOT took photographs of his surroundings and was itself active on social media.
Travel through Germany
hitchBOT’s twin, also named hitchBOT, set out from Munich on its own globe-trotting adventure on 13 February 2015. This robot travelled through Germany and the Netherlands before beginning a tour through the USA that came to a tragic end. In Philadelphia, an unknown person brutally attacked the electronic hitch-hiker, stole its technical equipment and destroyed it. hitchBOT’s designers Frauke Zeller and David Harris Smith rebuilt hitchBOT in Canada and turned it over to the HNF, where it now invites visitors to make selfies.
You can find more about the technology and travels of hitchBOT in the HNF blog.