I, RuBot
This is a great video of RuBot, the Rubik’s cube solving robot!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOhU3WP7zXw
This video was shot at the Maker Faire, a sort of do-it-yourself science fair recently held in NYC.
Apparently you can scramble up the cube any way you like, and set it on RuBot’s platform. RuBot picks it up, inspects the sides to determine the configuration, and then solves the cube! RuBot must have been happy when it was recently announced that every position of the Rubik’s cube can be solved in 20 moves or less.
I’m not sure if Rubot can solve 4×4’s or 5×5’s cubes. And I’m not sure why they made him look so creepy.
3 Comments
Alan · October 7, 2010 at 7:37 pm
Well, could the algorithm or what not (that RuBot is programmed with) be modified to work for 4×4 or 5×5 cubes? This experiment is fascinating. Now, a robot that can neatly complete Mathematical problems — now that would be impressive. We’re already halfway there with Wolfram Alpha. I wonder if the robot can be programmed to fetch data from wolframalpha.com and then manage to copy the text answer onto paper. That would be an interesting experiment. To whoever who may attempt this, I’ll be the first one to test it out. *Laughs evilly* — MWHAHAHA — *cough.*
Emil · October 8, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Terminator not required.
There’s a reason they’re called smartphones nowadays, instead of just cell phones.
Alan · October 10, 2010 at 1:07 am
Now, if I built that for the contest we were preparing for in Science class (7th/8th grade) for 3-6 months, my team would have won. Lego Mindstorms NXT is a fun and very interesting system.