The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Robot resolves Rubik's Cube in record time

Welcome your Lego-made masters

Agentless Backup is Not a Myth

Robots can beat humans at Jeopardy, fly our planes and even go to war for us, so they'll surely take over the world eventually. First thing's first, though - they'll have to beat our Rubik's Cube record. Oh wait, one just did.

Behold the CubeStormer II, a robot constructed from four lego Mindstorms NXT kits and packed with the processing power of a Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone.

On average, the CSII can crack a Rubik's Cube in six seconds.

In the video below, it can be seen clocking a record of 5.35 seconds - shaving milliseconds off the human-set figure of 5.66s.

Designed and built by the man behind the first - and slower - CubeStormer, Mike Dobson, and by software programmer David Gilday, the CSII is quite the technical achievement.

Sure, the maximum number of face turns needed to solve any instance of the Rubik's Cube puzzle is 20, but to work it out fully, both physically and mentally in such a short amount of time is über spectacular.

With the smartphone's dual-core capabilities, it simultaneously solves the puzzle as signals are sent to ARM processors in each Lego leg. Crazy stuff.

The CubeStormer II will be on show at ARM Techcon 2011 in the US later this month, where squares will rule the show. ®

Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything

"but only after being told how"

Or after the programmer has figured out how and programmed the phone to run the same logic.

Yes, it's a machine that simply does what it's told. Yes, it's not hard for a piece of software to solve a cube. Most innovations (e.g. auto-parking on BMW's) are the same sort of innovation. For goodness sake, see it for what it is... *lego* connected to a mobile *phone* to do something pointless *really* fast.

I want one!

Beer, because these guys deserve one. More than one. But they only have 5.3 seconds to drink them.

5
0

@Steve Knox

At that stage, it may be too late.

3
0

Eat that fanbois!

Finally, an application demonstrating how superior Samsung phones are in comparison with fruity ones.

2
0

More from The Register

 breaking news
Curtain drops on Apple Store ahead of WWDC: What lies behind?
Steve Jobs watching from on high. No pressure, lads
 breaking news
Cold, dead hands of Steve Jobs slip from iPhones: The Cult of Ive is upon us
Billionaire biz baron's death clears way for uber-shiny iOS 7
Airbus imagines suitcases that find themselves
Point your mobe at your smalls to track their every move
Surprise! Intel smartphone trounces ARM in power trials
Tests show equal performance while sipping significantly less juice
First look: iOS 7 for iPad
No, Apple hasn't released it yet, but that doesn't stop intrepid devs
Apple said to be 'exploring' 5.7-inch iPhone
Who's the copycat this time, Mr. Cook?
Review: Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock
Missing Mac ports reunited, for a price
 breaking news
Australian 'Apple tax' repealed for MacBook Air
But the new MacPro is priced at a premium