Originally called as Magic cube, Rubik’s Cube is a 3-D combination puzzle, which was invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ern? Rubik. In a classic Rubik’s Cube, each of the six faces is covered by nine stickers, each of one of six solid colours: white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow. In currently sold models, white is opposite yellow, blue is opposite green, and orange is opposite red, and the red, white and blue are arranged in that order in a clockwise arrangement. It works by plugging stepper motors affixed to 3D-printed frames into holes drilled into a Rubik’s Cube. The cube is scanned by four USB webcams that are attached to a PC, which find out the state of the colors. It then inputs the details through an implementation of the Kociemba Rubik’s cube solving algorithm that determines what moves are needed to solve the cube very quickly.
The program takes the image input from the cameras as seen in the image below and translates it into an “unrolled” version for human intake, as well as something the solver can understand. Only when all cameras are working would the robot function. Hence, preparation is done by just putting paper in front of one of the lenses.
Over the course of the 3:39 video, the machine gets a few runs that has a total of three results: 1.196s, 1.047s and a 1.019s towards the end. The duo is looking to apply for breaking the world record for their invention and get official recognition, which would overtake the previous machine record of 3.253seconds, along with the human record standing of 4.904 seconds.
