Lego NXT Bot Beats Rubik's Cube Record

kkleiner writes "The current official human record for the Rubik's cube 3×3×3 puzzle is just 5.66 seconds. Now a robot called CubeStormer II did it in just 5.35 seconds. CubeStormer II is controlled by four Lego NXT 'bricks' that communicate via Bluetooth with a Samsung Galaxy SII smart phone. A special app on the phone takes a picture of the cube, solves the puzzle virtually, and then relays the solution to the Lego robot. From click to finish the whole process takes just seconds."

Now this...

[ackthpt]

This is what you call a Hack

Is anyone in the medi-uh listening?

Re:

[FunkyELF]

I thought this was the sort of things that Lego Mindstorms was supposed to do. Using something for its intended purpose is the exact opposite of a hack.

I for one...

[wisebabo]

... would like to congratulate our new Rubik's cube solving Lego overlords!

(That's the first time I've ever had a chance to post that, does that mean this meme is dead dead dead?)

Re:

[kvezach]

It is dead, dead, dead [youtube.com]. It thought it was hot, guess what, it's not!

Wow

[The Joe Kewl]

Nothing short of amazing...
I guess I will have to stick with making non-robotic LEGO models

Re:

[pepeperes]

It's a LEGO brick robot, ffs! I guess no one at the real robotic industry has decided to invest in a Rubik cube solver robot. The robot's speed surely could be improved a lot using the "right" technology!

3x3?

[RockClimbingFool]

Shouldn't that be 3x3x3? Or has someone has invented the two dimensional Rubik's cube?

Re:

[jginspace]

Each FACE is 3x3?

Singularity

[Quiet_Desperation]

None can defeat me on the Cube 0. Well, in the abstract, at least.

Re:

[sam0737]

Just to differentiate it from 2x3 or 3x4 configuration, for that matter...

Re:

[jank1887]

well, to be fair, in the posted video it didn't take 15 seconds for inspection. assuming the first shot is taken after the clamps go down (~0:12) it presents the solved cube at about 0:18. So, est. 6 seconds including inspection. not too shabby.

I for one...

[RoverDaddy]

bah, you fill in the rest.

Re:

[xstonedogx]

...welcome our robotic idiot savant overlords?

Problem solver?

[sgt scrub]

A robot with fast hands! Now THAT is a push towards robotic friends for geeks.

Re:

[jank1887]

it did not look gentle at all. so, robotic friends for a subset of geeks who are into that.

It's not just that this Lego NXT bot can solve it.

[otaku244]

... it's that it looks so damn cool doing it!!!
It looks like some sort of contraption you'd find in a Sci-fi movie.

Question

[mjr167]

Why does the screen on the phone go black at about 14 seconds into the video?

Re:

[mystik]

I wondered the same thing -- I think it's because it's switching the video mode from 'regular' graphics to show the camera capture, to '3d' mode to show the opengl rendered cube based on the capture data.

Re:

[eison]

It's shutting off the camera. Switching camera on/off has a slight visual delay.

Terminator 5 - rise of the lego bots

[cod3r_]

(tm) (c) patent pending

The human race

[Brad1138]

Less needed day by day....

Re:

[plover]

Bah. My Rubik's cube solving job was outsourced to China five years ago.

Re:

[jamiesan]

I'm not allowed to solve it. It's a union job here.

Re:

[djmurdoch]

The humans are also allowed to study the cube before their time starts; the time for the robot included the time for the virtual solution.

cooler

[DSS11Q13]

a slightly slower, yet far more terrifying rubix cube bot can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaRcWB3jwMo&feature=player_embedded [youtube.com]

Why four?

[Pence128]

Why does it need 4 NXT bricks? Do they not have enough I/O? Maybe there's a market for an NXT port expander.