Hitchhiking robot destroyed in Philadelphia, ending cross-country trek

Lori Grisham | USA TODAY Network

Show Caption Hide Caption Adorable hitchhiking robot's trip ends tragically The Canadian-built HitchBOT met an untimely demise during its stop in Philadelphia. Colleen Hagerty (@colleenhagerty) has the story.

A hitchhiking robot that successfully traveled around Germany, Canada and the Netherlands was destroyed Saturday in Philadelphia, just a few weeks into its U.S. journey.

"Sometimes bad things happen to good robots," the Canadian research team that created "hitchBOT" said in a statement.

The team received an image of the destroyed robot Saturday, but do not know who vandalized it, the Associated Press reported. The robot's battery is dead and the team cannot locate it.

The robot, which wore yellow wellies and had "San Francisco or Bust" written across its head, was the size of a small child. It had a GPS tracker, could carry a limited conversation and took a photo every 20 minutes, the AP reported.

The public tracked the robot's travels on the hitchBOT website and on social media.

HitchBOT: The cutest robot you'll ever meet on the road An adorable galosh-wearing, hitch-hiking robot is thumbing his way across Canada this summer. Meet the creative forces behind hitchBOT, who's little experiment is blowing up on social media.

It started out in the U.S. on July 17 and saw sites in Boston and New York City before meeting its untimely end. Here's a look at how far hitchBOT traveled in the USA:

In a post on Facebook, the researchers said this is the end of the project at least for now.

"We have no interest in pressing charges or finding the people who vandalized hitchBOT; we wish to remember the good times, and we encourage hitchBOT’s friends and fans to do the same," the statement said.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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