How university students have built the fastest robot from Rubik, who has come to the cube so far

Team Bordeaux University Students recently appointed a new Guinness World Register With their dedicated robot that replaced the Rubik cube in just 0.103 seconds. It was about a third of the time that took the previous robot to set the record. But the new record was not simply achieved by building a robot that moves faster. Students use a mixture of high -speed but low -resolution camera systems, a cube for improving strength, and a common special solution between the human speed group.

the Rubik’s Cube Robot Arms Race He started in 2014, when a robot called Storm 3 It is designed with MindStorms Lego and Samsung Galaxy S4 parts of the iconic puzzle in 3.253 seconds – faster than any human or robot at the time. (The current world record for Humans replace Rubik cube He belongs to Xuanyi Geng, who did it in only 3.05 seconds) over a decade, the engineers managed to reduce this record to only hundreds of milliliters.

Last May, Mitsubishi Electric engineers in Japan claimed the world record with a The robot that replaced the cube in 0.305 seconds. I stood the record for about a year approximately before the team was from the ELMORE FAMILY School for Electrical and Computer – Juntei ota, ADEN HURD, Matthew Patrohay, and Alex Berta – destroyed it. Their robot is known as the Bordevic. Reaching the robot record to less than half a second requires to stay away from LEGO, and instead, using improved ingredients such as industrial motors. However, you ask to get this to only 0.103 seconds from the Bordeaux team to find multiple new ways for a millimeter.

“Every robot carried out by the owners of previous world records has focused somewhat on something new,” Patrohai says freedom. When Grad MIT students broke the record in 2018, they chose the industrial devices that surpassed the performance used by the former records. Mitsubishi Electric choose the electric motors that were more suitable for the specified task of rotating each side of the cube, instead of the devices that move faster.

However, the first thing Bordeaux students improving is actually the speed that their scrambled robot can imagine. Human composition competitors are allowed to study the Rubik cube before their temporary start, but the robot record includes the time it takes to locate all colored squares. Students used a pair of high -speed machine vision cameras from FLIR, with a resolution of 720 x 540 pixels only, and pointed to the opposition angles of the cube. Each camera can see three aspects simultaneously during exposure that lasted less than 10 microscopic.

Although it may seem immediate, it takes some time for the camera to process data coming from a sensor and convert it into a digital image. The Purdubik Cube uses a system for discovering images that transcends images completely. It also focuses only on a very small area of ​​what his sensor sees for every camera – a 128 x 124 pixel -bixr -cut area – to reduce the amount of data transferred.

Raw data from the sensors is sent directly to the high-speed color detection system, which uses RGB measurements from smaller sample areas in each box to determine their color faster than other methods-even artificial intelligence.

“Sometimes a little less reliable, but even if it is 90 percent fixed, this is good enough as long as it’s fast. We really want this speed,” Patrohi admits.

Despite many devices on Bordeaux robot, the team chose to go with the current programs when it comes to knowing the fastest way to solve a scrambled cube. They used Elias Frantar Rob TofzIt is an algorithm to solve the cube that takes into account the unique capabilities of robots, such as the ability to rotate the sides of the cube simultaneously.

The team also benefited from the cube solution technology from Rubik called Corner Cutting, where you can start at the heart of one side of the cube before you finish converting another vertical side on it. The advantage of this technique is that you are not waiting for a single aspect to complete its cycle completely before the start of another. For a brief moment, there is an overlap between the movements of the two sides that can lead to a large amount of time when chasing a global record.

The challenge is to cut the corner that if you use a lot of strength (like a robot is able to do it) and do not perfect things, you can completely break the Rubik cube or even destroy the Rubik cube completely. In addition to mastering the timing of robot movements and accelerating their engines, students had to customize the same cube.

The Guinness World Encyclopedia follows instructions World Cube Association, which has a long list of regulations This must be followed before admitting the record. It allows competitors to modify the cube, as long as it fluctuates and turns like a standard Rubik cube and has nine colored squares on each of its six sides, with each side of a different color. Other than plastic materials can be used, but all color parts need the same texture.

To improve its durability, the Purdue team upgraded the inner structure of their cubes with a customized 3D printed version made of the strongest Nylon plastic. WCA also allows the use of lubricants to help make the cubes rotate more freely, but here they are used for a different reason.

“The cube that we use in the record is incredibly narrow, like very narrow,” says Patrohai. “It is very difficult to run the person we modified. Not impossible, but you cannot turn him with your fingers. You really have to enter your wrist.” When solving the cube at high speeds, lubricating oils helps to soften its movements as it reduces increased tension and improves the control of time -saving tricks such as the corner pieces.

The fastest support engines help reduce the solution times, but they are not simple, so that they can be done and hoped for the best. The Purdubik Cube uses six engines connected to the metal columns that start in the middle of each side of the cube. After testing several different methods, the team settled on a deviant deviant profile where the machines accelerate at speeds of up to 12,000,000 degrees/s2, but a much slower slowdown, closer to 3,000,000 degrees/s2, so that the robot can put each side more accurately as it is related.

Can the Bordeke Cube break the record again? Patrohay believes it is possible, but it will need a stronger cube made of something other than plastic. “If you want to make the Rubik cube for the entire application of a type of carbon fiber compound, I can imagine that you are able to survive at higher speeds, and be able to survive at higher speeds that will allow you to reduce time.”