A robot developed in Russia has set a new world record for high-speed assembly of the Rubik’s cube, solving it in just 0.203 seconds. The record was achieved at a special event on July 5, 2024, according to a report by RIA Novosti. The previous record of 0.305 seconds was held by a robot from Japanese company Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.
Alexander Krotov, the creator of the record-setting robot from the company “Yandex”, revealed that the robot was specifically designed for cube assembly and utilized off-the-shelf components such as motors used in autonomous vehicles and cameras found in game consoles. Krotov explained that to achieve this remarkable feat, he optimized the software and coordinated the robot’s components for maximum speed.
The robot’s assembly process is incredibly rapid: it captures images of the cube faces in 10 milliseconds, processes the images in 8 milliseconds, plans its actions, and completes the cube assembly in 184 milliseconds. To put this in perspective, during that time, a human brain can only perceive the image seen and the eye can blink. The current human record for Rubik’s cube solving stands at 3.13 seconds.
Specialized drivers were used by the developer to control various elements of the robot, including motors, to achieve the record-setting speed. Krotov selected motors that quickly reach high speeds, similar to models used in robotic arms and electric scooters.
Krotov dedicated several years to the project, creating multiple versions of the robot. At Yandex, he is also involved in developing infrastructure for language neural networks utilized in the company’s products like Search and Neuro.