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World record for solving Rubik’s Cube using robot smashed by Bristol student
University of Bristol student Matthew Pidden has successfully broken the world record for solving a 4×4 Rubik’s Cube, completing it in just over 45 seconds.
He achieved this using his robot, known as ‘The Revenger’ which he designed, built and trained in just 15 weeks as part of his final dissertation project.
The 22-year-old computer science student taught himself everything he needed to know with support from his supervisor, Dr Neill Campbell.
The results will now be sent to the Guinness World Record organisers to verify.
Setting the world record took several attempts
The previous world record for solving a 4×4 Rubik’s Cube was 1 minute and 18 seconds, set by David Gilday’s Multicuber 3 robot in 2011.
This makes Matthew’s attempt 42.695 seconds faster.
But the attempt was not without hiccups. Two out of five attempts were successful in beating the world record, but it was on the last attempt that Matthew was able to hit his target of under 50 seconds, achieving an official time of 45.305 seconds.
Many of the pieces were 3D printed in the University of Bristol’s Robotics Lab
Matthew’s record-breaking model works by using cameras to scan the cube’s colours, which is then fed through to a programme running on Matthew’s laptop, that then sends the signal to the ten motors powering the robot’s arms.
According to Matthew the scanning takes under one second, while planning the moves takes even less with Matthew putting his estimate at nanoseconds.
Trade-offs occurs between the physical limitations of the 3D printed parts and psychical mechanisms and the computational workings.
A lot of work goes into ensuring that both work together to be as efficient and smooth as possible.
As so many areas of computer science came together to make this project happen, it also meant that there was more opportunity for challenges to arise.
In one attempt the arms broke, in another the camera failed to scan in the colours.
“It works when it wants to!” Matthew told Bristol24/7.
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All photos & video: Hannah Massoudi
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