A robot sent hitchhiking across Canada this summer as part of a social experiment has reached its final destination after several thousand kilometres on the road.

HitchBot, assembled from household odds and ends by university professors Frauke Zeller and David Smith, was set to be reunited with its creators at an art gallery in British Columbia, having crossed more than 6,000 kilometres.

The pair devised the trip to provide insights into societal views of robots.

"This project turns our fear of technology on its head and asks 'can robots trust humans?'," Dr Zeller said in late July when HitchBot's trip began.

With a head encased in a transparent cake saver set atop a plastic beer pail wrapped in a solar panel, and with swimming pool floats for limbs, the automaton was designed to be fully dependent on people.

"Our aim is to further discussion in society about our relationship with technology and robots," Dr Zeller said.

HitchBot 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.

Images and messages posted on Twitter showed the robot, wearing rubber boots and yellow latex gloves, being driven westward across forests, mountains and prairies, making stops to fish and camp, and attend a wedding and an aboriginal pow wow.

The journey, courtesy of a host of strangers, has inspired art, clothing and a knock-off made of cardboard and string, dubbed HitchBox.

To celebrate the end of HitchBot's odyssey, a party will be held at the Open Space gallery in Victoria, which supports experimental art.

Researchers will use comments posted on social media to analyse the public's attitudes to encounters with the robot.

AFP