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HitchBOT arrives in Victoria

The Story.......

HitchBOT Announces start date for Canadian hitchhiking journey

TORONTO, ON. June 13, 2014 – HitchBOT – the hitchhiking, tweeting, trivia-loving robot – will

officially start its coast-to-coast journey at the Institute for Applied Creativity and the Anna

Leonowens Gallery, both at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) on July 27,

2014. Members of media and the public are invited to attend this event and send HitchBOT off

on its trip from Halifax to Victoria.

Dr. David Harris Smith (McMaster University) and Dr. Frauke Zeller (Ryerson University) first

conceived of HitchBOT in 2013 as a collaborative art project. “Usually, we are concerned

whether we can trust robots…but this project takes it the other way around and asks: can

robots trust human beings?” said Dr. Zeller. “We expect HitchBOT to be charming and

trustworthy enough in its conversation to secure rides through Canada.”

Other than its one hitchhiking arm, HitchBOT will not be able to move on its own. Dr. David

Harris Smith envisions that HitchBOT will look “like somebody has cobbled together odds and

ends to make the robot, such as pool noodles, bucket, cake saver, garden gloves, Wellies, and

so forth.”

Through its AI and User Interface design, including speech recognition and processing, and 3G

and wifi connectivity, HitchBOT will know its exact location and can plan its journey from there.

Its knowledge is derived from a Wikipedia API, which will assist in its conversations with people.

For all the information on HitchBOT click here

(may sure you look at the driver instructions......)

HitchBOTs route across Canada

(I think it was following us!)

A mixed bag of people showed up in Victoria to hear the lecture

and find out what the social scientists learned from the project 

Bruce finally meets HitchBOT

It had the signatures of many famous Canadians

plus a fractured lens after a dancing accident at a wedding along the way.....

Key team members David Smith (McMaster University) , Frauke Zeller (Ryerson University)

and Colin Gagich (the real main force behind the idea currently doing an undergraduate degree

in mechatronics engineering and management at McMaster University)