Lego Robot Smashes Rubik’s Cube World Record

I absolutely loved lego when I was a kid but what I built was nothing compared to what two British engineers have created. The Cubestormer 3 robot was built by David Gilday and Mike Dobson and has just smashed the world record for completing a Rubik’s Cube.

In just 3.253 seconds this lego robot was able to solve the puzzle. That’s around 62-percent faster than the previous record, which had been held by its predecessor, Cubestormer 2. Cubestormer 3 also beat the current human record, which was set by Mats Valk at a time of 5.55 seconds last year.

“We knew Cubestormer 3 had the potential to beat the existing record but with the robot performing physical operations quicker than the human eye can see there’s always an element of risk,” said Gilday.

Behind the lego, however there is far more to this puzzle solving android. A custom-made Android app which runs on a Samsung Galaxy S4 completes the analysis and then send the controls to the unit, which is made up of motors, actuators and arms from a number of Lego Mindstorm sets.

Mike Dobson and David Gilday, who works for ARM, spent their free time working on the project for eighteen months, looking for ways to ensure that they could perfectly time the commands for optimum speed, without breaking the machine or jamming the Rubik’s Cube. But the dedication has paid off.

One of the engineers said, “Our big challenge now is working out if it’s possible to make it go even faster.”

[Image via YouTube]

SOURCE: http://gizmodo.com/lego-robot-with-a-smartphone-brain-shatters-rubiks-cub-1544556295