A talking robot assembled from household odds and ends is hitchhiking thousands of kilometers across Canada this summer as part of a social experiment to see if those of its kind can trust humans.
Society is “usually concerned with whether we can trust robots,” said Frauke Zeller, cocreator of the “hitchBOT.”
Hollywood movies like The Terminator and The Matrix often depict machines as enemies of mankind, but quite the opposite is true of hitchBOT, said Zeller, an assistant professor at Toronto’s Ryerson University.
Photo: Reuters
“This project turns our fear of technology on its head and asks: ‘Can robots trust humans?’” she said. “Our aim is to further discussion in society about our relationship with technology and robots, and notions of safety and trust.”
Zeller, fellow professor David Smith of Ontario’s McMaster University and a team of specialists designed hitchBOT to be fully dependent on people.
“It cannot achieve its task of hitchhiking across Canada without the help of people, because it cannot move by itself,” she said — and hitchBOT certainly has what it takes to charm its way into people’s hearts.
It can strike up a conversation and answer trivia questions by consulting information using its built-in computers. It will even say when it is tired and in need of recharging, which it can do from a car’s cigarette lighter.
HitchBOT has what has been described by Canadian media as a “yard sale aesthetic,” built for about US$1,000 from parts found in a typical Canadian home or hardware store.
It has an LED-lit smiley face wrapped in a transparent cake saver set atop a plastic beer pail swathed in a solar panel, with swimming pool noodles for limbs. Its feet are rubber boots and it wears yellow latex gloves, including one with its thumb extended to show it wants to catch a ride.
The automaton could not be made too heavy because it has to be lifted manually into a vehicle. It also has to be small enough to fit into the backseat of a car, but still have enough heft so it will not be blown over by a gust of wind while hitchhiking on the side of the road. HitchBOT also had to be resistant to the chilly temperatures common during Canada’s late summer nights.
“It had to be sturdy, but also appealing to people,” Zeller said. “We wanted people to feel like: ‘Yeah, I should stop to help that robot,’” which is exactly what has been happening.
It began its trip on July 27 in Canada’s Atlantic port city of Halifax, after being picked up by an elderly couple in a camper van.
They handed it off after a night in the Canadian outback to three young men from Quebec Province and hitchBOT then zipped through eastern Canada to Toronto for a brief check-in with its creators before hitting the road again. It is ultimately headed for the country’s western-most city of Victoria, more than 6,000km from its starting point.
The trip is being documented on social media (www.hitchbot.me), allowing people around the world to connect with the robot. Less than 24 hours after it began its journey, it had already snapped up 12,000 followers on Twitter, including one fan who posted a picture of a cardboard box look-alike. By Friday, that number was nearly 20,000.
“Everyone is rooting for it,” Zeller said. “It’s an interesting phenomenon — people are developing attachments to the robot, including many who [will] never meet hitchBOT, but are following it on social media.”
Once its travels are over, researchers will analyze comments posted on Twitter and Facebook to see what they can surmise about the public’s attitudes concerning robot-human interactions.
With the use of mechanical humanoids in space, manufacturing and everyday life growing, “it’s becoming more important to explore our relationship with robots. especially if they come into our households,” Zeller said.
Particularly interesting, is the question of whether robots will be seen as disposable as they age and break down, she added.
“What do we do when they will need to be repaired?” Zeller said, suggesting that some people may become attached to the little humanoids and will “keep and cherish” them.
“Do we repair them? Or will they become just another convenient item that we can throw away?” she asked. “We have to study all of that to ensure it works out right.”
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