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To Solve a Rubik's Cube In 1 Second, It Takes a Robot

Posted by timothy on from the don't-blink dept.

The Next Web features a quick look at an eyebrow-raisingly fast Rubik's Cube-solving robot, created by developers Jay Flatland and Paul Rose. How fast? The robot can solve a scrambled cube in one second (as long as you're willing to round down consistent solutions in "less than 1.2 seconds") which makes for some fun repeat views on YouTube. One speed-shaving element of the design: Rather than grip the cube with a robot hand, Flatland and Rose essentially made the cube an integral part of the system, by drilling holes in the cube's center faces, and attaching stepper motors directly. (Also at Motherboard).

16 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. It does run on linux by ls671 · · Score: 4, Funny

    OMG, it runs on linux!

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  2. So? by sunderland56 · · Score: 4, Funny

    With all the power of robotics, you've taken a task that takes a human less than five seconds, and reduced it to 1.2 seconds? Wow. I'm impressed.

    1. Re: So? by WarJolt · · Score: 2

      We need to protect the jobs of all the Rubik's cubes players. What else will they do all day? Destroy the robot!!!!

    2. Re:So? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, as the summary says it's not a stock Rubik's cube but rather one that has been modified and permanently installed into the system.
      That means that they don't really need to monitor the progress optically. They just need to keep track of how much the stepper motors have turned.

      Since you can't place a stock cube in there I also don't really see the point of having the physical manifestation. If they were to render a cube on a display they could easily get the time down to 10ms.

      Instead of building a Rubik's cube solver they redefined the problem and claimed it solved.

    3. Re:So? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 2

      With all the power of robotics, you've taken a task that takes a human less than five seconds, and reduced it to 1.2 seconds? Wow. I'm impressed.

      That's what she said.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    4. Re:So? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 2

      Well, Toe may have lost his job but Tic and Tac invented a new candy that's still popular today.

    5. Re: So? by Ichijo · · Score: 2

      I think the robot can only solve the first cube faster than a human, otherwise you could dump 50 cubes into a hopper and the machine would finish solving the last one about 60 seconds later. Now that would be impressive!

      So change the rules to require the participant to solve, let's say 3 cubes.

      --
      Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
  3. DQ'ed by mattyj · · Score: 2

    Not an unmodified cube. This is more like a robot that *is* a Rubik's Cube.

    1. Re:DQ'ed by serbanp · · Score: 2

      I'm pretty sure that they could come up with a method of attaching the centers to the stepper motors without requiring hole drilling.

      However, turning the faces faster and faster requires both extreme force and very careful over- and under-shoot control. Eventually, the inertial forces will be so high that the cube will disintegrate (its corners will fly away as their little holding ledges break off).

  4. Acceleration / Decelartion by nuckfuts · · Score: 5, Interesting
    From the video:

    The Arduino is responsible for controlling highly-tuned acceleration / deceleration curves to drive the stepper motors.

    This is very similar to the way mechanical hard drives position their read/write heads via magnetic coil. Depending on the distance (number of cylinders) that the heads need to travel across, a proportional amount of current is applied to accelerate the arm with the heads attached. After just a few milliseconds, however, the heads need to start decelerating in order to come to rest precisely over the desired track without overshooting.

    With both the Rubik's Cube and the hard drive, a physical object needs to be moved and then come to rest precisely in the blink of an eye. It's quite a neat trick of engineering.

    1. Re:Acceleration / Decelartion by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      its just a basic PID controller.

      I work with PID controllers very frequently. I still consider them a damn amazing and neat trick of engineering. Just because something becomes common shouldn't mean that we stop marvelling at the genius thought that went behind creating it.

  5. Not the first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    This one uses quite a long time to prepare but the solve itself is around 1 second

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laPVTrzGDpA

  6. It's not a Rubik's Cube any more by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you have modified the toy, it is no longer a Rubik's Cube. It is some other thing.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:It's not a Rubik's Cube any more by Paul+Rose · · Score: 5, Interesting

      That is a valid point of view.
      The modifications are within those allowed by the WCA for human competitions.
      Also the current Guinness record holder has done an even deeper modification ( which was the inspiration for us to go this route ).
      Paul Rose ( the one from the video that doesn't talk )

    2. Re:It's not a Rubik's Cube any more by vux984 · · Score: 2

      .though it didn't have to "hear" the questions, getting them fed in scanned form whilst meat-based contestants had to be read them aloud.

      1) The vast majority jeopardy clues are 'revealed' immediately; then the host reads them out. The modern show requires the contestants wait for the host to finish reading them before they can hit the button. (And they even have indicators on their consoles to indicate when they are allowed to answer. Earlier in the series contestants were able to buzz in while the clue was still being read, but that was removed to make it more viewer friendly.

      2) 1) The Watson challenge had slightly modified rules. Watch the documentary. Or read about that specific match for more details.

  7. Early tests were done with an unmodified cube... by Pseudonymous+Powers · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Behold, my robot can solve a Rubik's cube in less than a second!"

    [He pushes the button. There is a whirr of motion, and a flash.]

    "Uh... well, as you can see, after the procedure, the cube is a bit too... on fire... to read. But rest assured, if it weren't charred, and, um... also, if it were still a cube, I guess... then each side would be a single color. Uh, a single other than black, I mean. Impressive, no?"

    [The audience is silent.]

    "Uh... ta-daaaa!"