HitchBOT nears the end of its cross-Canada journey

After bumming its first ride in Nova Scotia to start its cross-Canada journey, hitchBOT, the hitchhiking robot, is nearing its final destination of Victoria.

• TIMELINE | A hitchhiking robot goes west

The talking, tweeting, hitchhiking robot has drawn international attention, even making People magazine.

HitchBOT left Nova Scotia on July 26 for the 6,000-kilometre journey to Victoria. According to its latest tweets, hitchBOT plans to meet some new friends in a Salish First Nations community in Victoria on Wednesday.

It hasbeen quite an adventure for the small robot, whichhas met hundreds of people, visited a powwow at Wikwemikong, met the world's most famous albino groundhog,WiartonWillie, grooved to the Harlem Shake in Saskatchewan, and partied all night at a wedding in Golden, B.C.

HitchBOTis dependent on human beings for its survival.

David Harris Smith, an assistant professor at Hamilton's McMaster University, first came up with the idea of creating a collaborative art project centred on a hitchhiking robot. He worked with a team of researchers based in Ontario that was interested in looking at how humans interact with technology.