With pool noodle arms, a plastic bucket for a torso and a limitless wealth of retrievable knowledge — at least while in 3G network range — a curious entity is getting ready to put out the thumb and bum rides across Canada this summer.

It’s HitchBOT, the genderless hitchhiking robot that will rely on the kindness of flesh-and-blood strangers to safely complete a 4,480-kilometre odyssey that starts in Halifax on July 27 and is supposed to wind up at an art gallery in Victoria.

At least that’s the hope. Like every cross-continental ramble, this one’s a gamble.

“There’s this idea of adventure, exploration, optimism,” said David Harris Smith, a McMaster University researcher who’s spearheading the “social robotics” experiment with Ryerson’s Frauke Zeller, an assistant professor in communications.

“It kind of depends upon empathy and social collaboration,” Harris Smith added. “That’s one of the risks we’re willing to take.”

Conceived through discussions that began last year, the HitchBOT project involves students and professors from McMaster, Ryerson and the University of Toronto. The team is using speech-recognition software so that HitchBOT can converse with the people it meets, as well as network connectivity to allow it to search for regionally-relevant talking points and post photos and text to social media. It will also use GPS so researchers know where it is.

“It’s kind of anthropomorphic and somewhat comical,” said Harris Smith, describing the robot — which isn’t completely assembled yet — as “about the size of a 6-year-old child” that will include a built-in car seat that can be buckled up next to a driver.

“I think people will be delighted and somewhat surprised that it can actually talk to them.”

In keeping with hitchhiking’s storied tradition of freedom and spontaneity, the plan is to simply leave HitchBOT on the side of the road in Halifax. When someone comes to pick it up, the robot will tell them where it’s headed, and ask them how far they’re going.

Harris Smith said the robot’s conversation software will allow it to “negotiate” the details of its ride and request to be plugged into the vehicle’s cigarette lighter so that it can recharge its battery. At the end of the ride, HitchBOT will ask to be left safely on the side of the road, where it will wait with its thumb out to be picked up again.

The project leaders conceded there’s no telling what will happen once HitchBOT is out there on its own. The robot could get trashed by drunk teenagers, left in a muddy ditch without power, or become the inseparable object of infatuation to a lonesome trucker who’s been on the road far too long.

Not knowing is part of the fun, said Harris Smith. “It becomes more interesting when we think about autonomous technology, things that we just set loose.”

Zeller, who did her doctoral thesis on human-robot interaction, said the most interesting aspect of HitchBOT’s journey will be how people treat the machine in an uncontrolled situation.

“It is physically, wholly dependent on the person that will drive it,” said Zeller, who added that HitchBOT’s social media posts and GPS positioning might help keep it safe.

“Should it get stuck, hopefully someone gets out there and helps it.”

The robot itself is still a work in progress. Colin Gagich and Dominik Kaukinen, third-year mechatronics students at McMaster, are building the robot in Gagich’s basement.

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Most of the parts they’re using come from Home Depot: copper tubing wrapped in pool noodles for the arms and legs, a Coors Light bucket for the body, and a series of LED lights to act as a face. These will be able to flash text and emoticons while HitchBOT communicates with people it meets.

“We’re making something that people are going to interact with, people are going to see and get excited about,” said Gagich, 19.

In a perfect world, HitchBOT will be taken on many circuitous side trips, making the route west as interesting as possible. The worst-case outcome is that the robot doesn’t make it at all.

“I’m very optimistic,” said Zeller. “It’s a long journey. It should have some fun.”