Rubik's Cube Robot
Students studying computing and robotics at Swinburne University of Technology have developed the world's fastest Rubik's Cube robot as a final year project for their double degree in Robotics and Mechatronics/Computer Science and Software Engineering.
The robot, named 'Ruby', is an end-to-end solution for solving a Rubik's Cube that was custom designed and built from scratch using base components with the objective of optimising for speed. The robot works by scanning each face of a scrambled cube through a web cam and then developing a solution using a software algorithm which is used to solve the cube using a high-speed robot. The total solve time including the initial face scanning is approximately 10 seconds.
Ruby is the fusion of a fast computer vision-tracking system, a software implementation of an algorithm and a real-time embedded control system capable of very high precision motor movements and timings. This project was achieved with the integration of the student's expertise in robotics and software engineering.
Ruby will be on display at Swinburne University of Technology Open Day - 21 August, 2011.