The hitchhiking robot that became a social media darling as it documented its travels throughout the world likely hasn't taken its last ride, its co-creators said Wednesday.
Frauke Zeller and David Harris Smith said they're mulling future travel plans for HitchBot despite the fact that their pet project met a violent and untimely end on the streets of Philadelphia over the weekend.
The child-sized, solar-powered machine, which successfully thumbed rides across Canada and travelled parts of Europe without incident, was left in a pile of trash with its arms lying nearby and its head missing altogether.
Zeller said the components that survived the attack are currently being shipped home to Canada. The bot's future is uncertain, but Zeller said it's entirely possible it could wind up back on the road.
"We could either build another HitchBot and send it out on the streets again in Philadelphia next year, or also start a project with schools. Basically have HitchBot go from school to school," Zeller said in a telephone interview.
Zeller, a communications professor at Toronto's Ryerson University, and Harris Smith, an assistant professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, originally conceived the hitchhiking robot as a social experiment to see if machines could develop a trusting bond with human beings.
The pair partnered with researchers at the University of Guelph to construct a pint-sized, immobile droid that could carry on limited conversations with strangers kind enough to help it travel the world and check items off its bucket list.
Strangers helped HitchBot travel from Halifax to Victoria in 19 days in the summer of 2014.
The ill-fated U.S. trip saw the bot fulfil at least some of its American dreams, namely doing the wave at a Boston Red Sox baseball game and seeing the lights in New York's Times Square.
Its ultimate goal was to make it to California, and Zeller said it could still finish the trip after the lengthy rebuilding process that would almost certainly not be completed until next year.
If they decide to keep HitchBot closer to home, Harris Smith said the country's schools would be a natural destination for the robot that has already had an impact in Canadian classrooms.
"We've met at some of our reception events teachers who are using HitchBot to talk about geography, to also talk about different cultures, and also this idea of artificial intelligence and the future of robotics," he said.
HitchBot's co-creators said they had known all along that their experiment could come to an abrupt end, but the months of unbridled enthusiasm for the project left them poorly prepared for the weekend attack.
Fortunately, they said, the public who so readily embraced their creation has issued an outpouring of support in recent days. Zeller said they're touched by the social media condolences and offers of both logistical help and funds to get HitchBot back on the road.
Harris Smith said the more creative shows of support, such as photo montages and even a musical tribute, also help soften the blow.
Zeller and Harris Smith said they have no plans to press charges against those who harmed HitchBot in the city of brotherly love. Finding the culprits would have been very difficult, and the revelation that widely circulated video purporting to show HitchBot's last moments was in fact a fake put together by the machine's last-known companions only complicates the issue.
Despite the way HitchBot's adventures ended, Zeller said the experiment's central question has been answered with a resounding yes.
"We refuse to think that this is now proof that robots can't trust humans."
