We Can Give Up On The Rubik’s Cube Now — This Machine Solves It In One Second [Video]

Many people have devoted hours to learning the algorithms of the Rubik’s Cube in the hopes of solving the three dimensional puzzle as quickly as possible. An unbelievable number of Rubik’s Cube enthusiasts have refined their skills to the point of solving the thing in just a few seconds, resulting in people hosting competitions to see who can finish the fastest. But humans may have to step aside from now on, because a Rubik’s Cube solving machine has just obliterated both the human and the machine records.

According to the Epoch Times, a video has gone viral showing what appears to be the “world’s fastest Rubik’s Cube solving robot.” You can see the amazing mechanical feat in the video above, with the actual solution taking place at around three minutes and twenty seconds. But, be warned, the machine solves the Rubik’s Cube so fast that your eyes won’t really even detect what’s going on.

If you don’t want to watch the entire video, you can check out the clip below, showing only the part where the Rubik’s Cube gets solved in a little over one second.

The official best time for the robot is 1.04 seconds.

The Rubik’s Cube solving robot was developed by Jay Flatland and Paul Rose, software engineers who also constructed the device that manipulates the cube via holes drilled into the puzzle. The machine is made of multiple “stepper motors” and 3D-printed part. It uses webcams to detect the Rubik’s Cube’s color panels and runs on an Arduino chip through a Linux system.

Flatland and Rose shared their YouTube video of their incredible device with the casual description, “My Friend Paul and I show off our Rubik’s cube solving robot.”

But how does the robot know exactly what to do? The Rubik’s Cube solution hasn’t actually changed much from the method that humans use to finish the puzzle quickly. As YouTuber Dan Brown famously illustrated, the trick is simply memorizing a short list of algorithms, allowing you to move one colored panel to another position on the cube through a series of directional turns.

The Rubik’s Cube solving robot uses mathematical methods very similar to this. The developers incorporated the Kociemba algorithm into the system.

To ensure that the robot is legitimately solving the Rubik’s Cube in just over a second, the web camera lenses are covered until the exact moment that the machine is instructed to complete the puzzle.

If everything in the video is as it seems, Flatland and Rose have smashed the original record for a robot solving a Rubik’s Cube, which stands at 3.253 seconds from VentureBeat. The software developers are currently in the process of applying for a world record, and if everything goes according to plan, they’ll be the new title holders for fastest mechanical Rubik’s Cube solution.

Considering the amount of circuitry and advanced computing that goes into the robot, the best human record for solving a Rubik’s Cube is also impressive, because it’s only about five times as long as Flatland and Rose’s device. Lucas Etter currently holds the fastest time at 4.904 seconds. You can see his amazingly fast fingers finish the puzzle in the YouTube video below.

Do you think Jay Flatland and Paul Rose have invented an authentic Rubik’s Cube solving robot that can beat the standing mechanical record? Or do you think the machine will fall short when it comes time to test for the official world record?

For more amazing things related to Rubik’s Cubes, watch this Rubik’s Cube magic trick that manages to stun Penn and Teller.

[Photo via YouTube]