It took 18 months to create a robot that would solve a Rubik's Cube in 3 seconds, but the CUBESTORMER 3 has smashed the Guinness World Record title for solving the classic handheld puzzle.
As demonstrated at the Big Bang Fair in Birmingham, UK this weekend, co-inventors David Gilday and Mike Dobson show off their new CUBESTORMER 3 robot that utilizes a Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone powered by an eight-core ARM processor implementation. The phone "analyzes the cube, calculates the correct sequence of moves and instructs four robotic hands to do the manipulations," according to a press release at Business Wire.
Gilday explains how the robot works with the smartphone: "The robot demonstrates just how fast a Samsung Galaxy S4 can think. As well as working out the solution, the ARM-powered Exynos processor has to instruct the robot to carry out the moves. This is more complex than it seems because CUBESTORMER 3 uses a speed cube which allows twists before the sides are fully-aligned. It means the robot is effectively mirroring the same kind of judgement and dexterity that a human speed cuber has to apply."
The new Rubik's Cube solving record stands at 3.253 seconds which breaks the old record of 5.27 seconds achieved in 2011. Interestingly enough, the old record was held by the CUBESTORMER 2, also designed by Gilday and Dobson.
David Gilday is a principle engineer at ARM, the company that designed the processor used in this robot. Mike Dobson is a security systems engineer for Securi-Plex.
The CUBESTORMER 3 can perform physical operations quicker than the human eye can even perceive the movement, according to Gilday. He states that the team saw this as an element of risk, but knew that the record could be broken with a few tweaks to its motor and intelligence functions. Next up? Gilday says he and his team aim to make even further improvements to beat the record again.
The Big Bang Fair is aimed at young students of the UK who may want to one-day hold a career in science, technology, engineering, or math. The fair has been held in March every year since 2009 and offers a look at the exciting opportunities that exist for these fields.
