Robot Will Hitchhike Across Canada – Motorists Encouraged to Pick Up Machine, Interact With it, Put it Back on the Road b4in.org/e4dK A bizarre concept is on the verge of being unleashed on Canadian soil. Launching later this summer, hitchBOT is a small, interactive robot that will be hitchhiking across the North American country as part of an experimental project. The brainchild of Drs. David Harris Smith and Frauke Zeller, of McMaster and Ryerson universities, the small robot was first thought up in 2013 as a joint project between the two. “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 in a press release. “We expect hitchBOT to be charming and trustworthy enough in its conversation to secure rides through Canada.” In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Smith explained hitchBOT will be able to interact not only with its creators — via text messages and phonecalls — but will also be able to speak to those motorists who stop and pick it up — thanks to an ability to look up topics on Wikipedia. The idea is people will pick up the small robot from its places along the road, plug it in to the car’s lighter for power and begin interacting with it. “I’m willing to take the risk that somebody might put it in the middle of the road and run it over,” Smith said in the article. The small robot, featuring a GPS tracking system, ‘hitchhiking arm’, two legs and a small body, will begin its journey next month when it is left alongside a road in Halifax, Nova Scotia with the plan being it will, eventually, arrive in Victoria, British Columbia. More b4in.org/e4dK
Posted on: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 14:28:28 +0000
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