MARBLEHEAD – “hitchBOT” the interactive robot seemed to have some very real human qualities. Now, a week after the childlike robot met its demise in Philadelphia, its loss is keenly felt by the North Shore community from where his journey began.”When I heard the news, I actually teared up a little bit,” said Peabody Essex Museum programming coordinator Doneeca Thurston. “I had an interaction with hitchBOT, and it was childlike – very sweet and very curious.”Kids and adults of all ages were communicating with hitchBOT. You could ask it questions, and it would tell you about where it wanted to go,” she said.Thurston, who helped organize the hitchBOT kickoff party at the museum last month, spoke of how the decision was reached to launch the robot – which was created in Canada as part of a social experiment – from Marblehead.”They were looking for a local area where there would be a lot of foot and car traffic, and it could be picked up,” said Thurston. They decided Marblehead would be a good choice.”They wanted it to be able to go from East Coast to West Coast,” Thurston said.”As researchers, we wanted to know, ?can robots trust humans?’ And we knew there would always be the possibility that hitchBOT would be damaged or stolen,” said Dr. David Harris Smith, assistant professor at McMaster University and hitchBOT co-creator.”Even though it did end badly for hitchBOT (the robot was decapitated in Philadelphia), we’ve learned a lot about human empathy and trust. Everything we’ve learned will be borne out in the resulting research and used in future planning for hitchBOT adventures,” said Smith.hitchBOT had an enthusiastic bucket list, one of which was to attend a professional sporting event, which it crossed off after going to Fenway Park. It was also able to see the lights in Times Square. However, hitchBOT was not able to fulfill most of the items on its bucket list before it was destroyed.It had also hoped to go to Disney World, tan at Myrtle Beach, visit the Grand Canyon, see “Sleepless in Seattle,” and become the fifth portrait on Mount Rushmore.hitchBOT spent a lot of time on the North Shore, said Thurston. Fans were able to track its journey through Storify, a blogging website. The interactive robot hitched a boat ride with Gloucester lobstermen, went on a Boston Duck Tour, went to a Red Sox game, and spent an afternoon at Boston Common.People across the North Shore were open to the idea of hitchBOT and treated it with a lot of kindness, Thurston said.”The creators were curious to see how long it would take to make it across the U.S.,” Thurston said. “They thought it could take up to two years. I was surprised to see how long it stayed in the North Shore area. It was in the North Shore for at least a week. I thought ?maybe it will take two years after all.'”Eventually the robot moved on. It was left on a park bench in Philadelphia’s Old City at night and encountered a man who violently attacked and decapitated it.”I don’t know if the gentleman was under the influence and was startled by a talking robot,” said Thurston. “It was a tourist area but not a very safe area.””The body, which was found by some of hitchBOT’s fans, is in the process of being sent back to its family in Canada,” according to a press release.”The social experiment looked at the comfortability people had with something like a robot hitchhiking across the country,” said Thurston. “While there are many of us that are more than willing to jump on the bandwagon, there are also others who are not as comfortable with the idea of a new type of technology that is like a person.””I guess it’s part of the social experiment,” she said. “It’s like putting your child out in the wild and hoping that it makes its way to its destination and then returns back home. It’s like an experiment in trust.”hitchBOT had previously hitchhiked from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and across Canada to British Columbia in just 26 days. Then, it explored Germany and the Netherlands. It’s goal for