Rubik's Cube Solving Robot

[Alexa Stott]

This was sent to me by a friend (Bharat, if you must know). I thought it was pretty cool. I wonder how they figured out how to do that.

[Greg Marra]

You can see they have created banded disks that are attached to the motors that drive the cube. Using simple ("bright" or "no bright") sensors like the banner sensor that has been in the KOP in the past, they scan the cube's configuration. This is why all the sides rotate, then it stops and thinks for a while. It is deciding how the cube is set up, and how to best solve it. The algorithms to do so have already been developed by other mathematicians, so they just had to implement them.

At least, that's what I am guessing from the video.

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by Greg Marra

You can see they have created banded disks that are attached to the motors that drive the cube. Using simple ("bright" or "no bright") sensors like the banner sensor that has been in the KOP in the past, they scan the cube's configuration. This is why all the sides rotate, then it stops and thinks for a while. It is deciding how the cube is set up, and how to best solve it. The algorithms to do so have already been developed by other mathematicians, so they just had to implement them.

At least, that's what I am guessing from the video.

Ah, okay. I didn't really examine the video very closely. It's late and my brain isn't quite functioning properly.

Thanks for the explanation. It's still a pretty cool robot.

[RoboMadi]

That is amazing. Actually its called the Rubik's Cube 3 Cycle method/rule.
I've read the paper on the Rubik's Cube and the algorithms behind it. If I'm not wrong that video is from the Stanford University. Here is the paper about it and it also explains the algorithms behind it in detail. Have fun with it .

[David55]

As opposed to what some people might think, you really don't have to be a genius to solve the Rubik's cube. It's actually quite easy.

All you have to do is memorize about 50 "moves" each consisting of about 15 cube turns.

Seriously now, there are many systems to solve the cube, and they mainly work by building up the cube (first one side with a T on all the sides next to it, then the middle layer, bottom corners and bottom center pieces). There are also many different ways to build up the cube.

What's interesting though is that the robot does not scan the cube while it's solving it. They must have used a different system or programmed the robot to know the position of all the cube pieces after every move.

[Conor Ryan]

Well it's not as elegant but the Lego Rubix Cube solver has always gotten my attention (http://jpbrown.i8.com/cubesolver.html) and the best part about it? If you have all the software you can download the code and try it for yourself.

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by Conor Ryan

Well it's not as elegant but the Lego Rubix Cube solver has always gotten my attention (http://jpbrown.i8.com/cubesolver.html) and the best part about it? If you have all the software you can download the code and try it for yourself.

Oh man that is amazing.