A Rubik’s Cube has been sitting on Joe Ridgeway’s shelf since he was a child, but it wasn’t until he was studying at Rowan University that he fully embraced its challenge…
In a project that started in a Rowan course, Ridgeway and Zachary Grady, both senior electrical and computer engineering (ECE) majors, have built a robot that solves the cube in 15 seconds.
The Rubik’s Cube-Solving Robot, a year in the making, has earned the duo more than 17,000 hits on YouTube and a congratulatory note from Erno Rubik himself. And though it’s not yet official, they are confident, based on their research, that the robot is the fastest of its kind…
The robot wastes little time – after 17 moves, it twirls the descrambled cube in a modest celebration.
Ridgeway, 21, and Grady, 22, made the machine from scratch, they said, working under the guidance of Mease and ECE chair Shreekanth Mandayam and with mechanical-engineering help from graduate student Karl Dyer.
RTFA. Interesting in more ways than you might expect.
Ahhh. But kid beats robot by nearly 9 seconds!
Future prospects of finding a girlfriend. 0.
#1 Impressive. Great skill if we move iPAD manufacturing to the US.
Why is this not on FoxNews on what America needs to do to for manufacturing leadership? Who needs education investment.
#2 And more to the point, who needs you?
“RTFA. Interesting in more ways than you might expect” //// Rats. I missed everyone of them! some good links in the sidebar–is that what you meant?
I think Eid expected readers to be more interested (interesting?) than they are capable of.
Not counting the troll, of course.
Robotic processes can be speeded up. Humans? Not so readily.
I thought “practice” made things easier and faster? No?
I did read the article too fast. I guess, from a mathmetician describing 17,000 hits as being “absolutely surprising level on interest” to be puffing on a scale not often seen?
But does anyone know if any cube can be solved in 17 moves or can it vary? I assume the pattern is locked in based on where the first 2-3 colors are?
I did the same thing with tic,tac,toe in grade school. Beat my sisters and Mom all the time. Dad would beat me whenever I looked at him, so I never played him. He used to tell me to save my money and not let the government tax me like a slave. He was a great man.
Ok. This must be the fifteenth robot I have seen solve this stupid toy puzzle. Can we move on?
#1 – with those fingers?
BTW, how does the cube get scrambled in a consistent manner before any of these contests? Surely there are some starting configurations that take more time to solve than others?
#9 – it doesn’t really matter – it’s been mathematically proven that every possible configuration of the cube can be solved in 20 moves or less (see cube20.org)
I’ve seen the same thing done with a Lego robot.
I hate puzzles, they make my hair hurt.
I never saw the point of the Rubic cube, or the Rubic snake.
Just like I never saw the point to playing Tetris.
Its something that is either NP-Complete (the Rubic cube and snake have solutions) or NP-incomplete (like Tetris which defeats you eventually.)
Thanks for the elucidation, chuck.
From cube20.org: “God’s Number is 20” i.e., every position of Rubik’s Cube can be solved in twenty moves or less.
If Dan Rather was more knowledgeable, he could have offered this when his assailant repeatedly asked, “Kenneth, what is the frequency?”
#3 I’m hugely popular for my insight, wit and unvarnished truth! Did you ever solve a Rubik’s cube or are you still working on Mr Potato Head?
Must agree with bobbo. The side links were much more interesting.
The naked bicycle ride was eye catching but I’d have thought the law would have at least enforced the use of safety helmets. Having suffered long lasting road rash I can’t say I’m really a fan of doing something like that. Viewing on the other hand should be perfectly safe at least in the US of A.
As a side issue this is the sort of crap that seriously offends the Mullahs because they think it offends Allah. Some seriously bad things would happen to anyone caught with the photos from this event in many Islamic countries.
Really, Eideard? RTFA. Wouldn’t a simple RTA do? Profanity (even implied) is the sign of a lack of imagination.
Is it bad to wish slow agonising death to a robot?
Animby–wasn’t it last week you criticized me for inserting the asterisk in F*ck You? Consistent with avoiding spam filters, you criticism was my “shyness” in using the Anglo-Saxon. Then yesterday you criticize me again for calling PUKES out for their REPUBLICAN PERFIDY. Now you are after Eideard for posting in the vernacular of the medium we are all using–no different nor any more offensive than using Moran. What is it Animby–is your GrandMother visiting and looking over your shoulder? Is it her money, elderberry wine, or approval you seek?
–Place link to your favorite Church Lady Monologue here–
Becoming a bit of a judgmental old scowl there Animby. Pull back before you start teaching Sunday School.
Who said unvolunteered character assessment was not rewarded?
Big deal, I can build a robot that solves a cube in 1 second. It takes one or two moves, or perhaps I just give it a solved cube to begin with.
#12, perhaps you should learn what NP complete and incomplete mean.