New Robot Breaks Rubik’s Cube Solving World Record

A new German robot has set a world record for the fastest time completing a Rubik’s Cube.

ROBOT SETS NEW RUBIK’S CUBE SOLVING RECORD

The robot, called the Sub 1 Reloaded, and engineered by Albert Beer, solved the puzzle in 0.637 seconds. The record prior was held by a previous model of the same bot last January, which solved in 0.887 seconds.

In that time, the machine received two pictures of the cube, identified each color, and calculated the solution using a Two-Phase Algorithm made by Herbert Kociemba. That answer was then passed to the Infineon processor, and the robot maneuvered the squares. It used its six mechanical arms to make 21 moves before solving.

The time was actually recorded last November at a fair in Munich, but Guinness World Records only confirmed the numbers this week. They had been reviewing all information to make sure it was correct.

For comparison, the fastest time solving a Rubik’s cube recorded by a human is 4.904 seconds, and was set by teen Lucas Etter in November 2015. Another man was seen on video solving in 4.74 seconds in 2016, but that was not confirmed by the records book.

The first successful engineering forays into solving Rubik’s cubes came in the 1980s, and in 1983 a bot named Cubot was able to solve in two or three minutes.

Watch the video below of Sub 1 Reloaded achieving the feat.