Hitchhiking robot's journey came to an end prematurely, after it received a brutal treatment during its time in Philadelphia, reports stated.
The robot called hitchBOT intended to see all of America but it was vandalized in Philadelphia on Saturday after visiting New York and Massachusetts, according to its Canadian creators Frauke Zeller and David Harris Smith, who reported to The Associated Press.
The kid-sized robot looked friendly and had pool noodles as its arms and legs. Its body was made from a bucket and it sported a grin on its LED-screen head.
It already toured Canada, Netherlands, and Germany, and had initially hoped to make more adventures in America, including hearing jazz in New Orleans and posing with Mount Rushmore in Dakota, as stated in its bucket list.
The robot cannot move on its own and requires an act of kindness to help it get to where it wants to go. It can only communicate a bit and recognize human speech, as reported in The Verge.
Other than that, hitchBOT can also update all of its travels to social media with a wireless connection embedded inside it. It also has a Global Positioning System (GPS) tracker to help researchers track its location; but during its demise in Philadelphia, the tracking ended because the battery was dead.
There was no way of finding out who "killed" the robot or why someone did it, the creators said according to NBC Philadelphia.
HitchBOT was part of a social experiment by Zeller and Smith done to observe how humans would interact with machines.
It had already attended a wedding and a comic convention. It also visited Fenway Park and even ticked off one of the items from its bucket list, which was to "see the lights in Times Square."
Now that the robot has been destroyed, fans who followed its story may be sad about its unfortunate end and even Zeller was concerned for the kids who loved hitchBOT's adventures.
But according to the creators, the bot's journey is not over yet. For the next step, researchers are planning to focus on the lessons that can be picked up from hitchBOT's journey. More updates on the project will be given this week, reports stated.
