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Rubik's Cube solving CubeStormer II beats human record (video)

Rubik's Cube solving CubeStormer II beats human record (video)

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CubeStormer II uses a Samsung Galaxy S II as its brain

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CubeStormer II Rubik's Cube robot
CubeStormer II Rubik's Cube robot

The CubeStormer II isn't the first Rubik's Cube solving robot we've seen, but it's the only one thus far to break a human world record, clocking in at 5.35 seconds to best Feliks Zemdegs' time of 5.66 seconds. The robot is the brainchild of Mike Dobson and David Gilday, creators of the CubeStormer and Speedcuber, respectively, and is being shown at ARM TechCon 2011 in California later this month. Not surprisingly, both the Lego Mindstorms NXT kits that form its body and the Samsung Galaxy S II serving as its brain feature ARM-based processors. The smartphone solves the puzzle by running an app which captures each face of the cube with the phone's camera and uses an enhanced multi-threaded algorithm — optimized for the Galaxy S II's dual-core processor — to find a solution optimized for the robot's four-grip arm. The app then uses Bluetooth to communicate with software running on the microprocessors that control the robot's motors, and voila, the puzzle is solved. CubeStormer II's creators are also quick to point out that while human solvers are allowed to inspect the Rubik's Cube before the clock starts, the robot's recorded times are included in the "total solve" process. Check out video of the robot in action below.