The Guinness World Records Organization confirmed on Friday that Albert Beer’s Sub1 Reloaded robot had broken the record for the fastest robot to solve a Rubik’s Cube. It managed to address the puzzle in just 0.637 seconds and 21 moves.
This is the second time the German engineer and his robot take home the coveted world record, after managing to achieve it in January 2016 in a slightly slower but equally impressive 0.887 seconds.
Infineon Technologies, a German firm specialized in advanced computing solutions, provided the processor for the Sub1 Reloaded. The company wanted to showcase their achievements in microelectronics efficiency, currently devoted to self-driving car systems.
How did the robot solve the Rubik’s Cube so fast?
Sub1 Reloaded is the second version of the record-breaking Sub1 robot built by Albert Beer, a German engineer with a passion for Rubik’s Cubes and robotics.
The semi-spherical machine is capable of achieving such a feat thanks to a complex system of cameras, six mechanical arms, and an Infineon AURIX microcontroller board that solves the puzzle at blazing fast speeds.
Placing a randomly scrambled cube at the heart of the robot and the press of a button triggers the camera shutters. They detect the color combination of the cube’s tiles and devise a solution using a specialized algorithm.
Once the machine comes up with a way to rearrange the cube back to its original single-colored sides, each mechanical arm twists and turns the pieces to match them again. The whole process is complete in under a second, 0.637 seconds to be exact.
Did the robot break the Guinness World Record?
There have been several claims that object to Albert Beer’s alleged world record, although the Guinness World Records Organization has since confirmed that the achievement is indeed valid and recognized it with a proper certificate.
First off, there has been opposition from Rubik’s Cube aficionados or ‘cubers’ about the legitimacy of the record given that Beer used a particular “speed cube” that is easier to twist and turn than the original one, thus reducing time.
However, the World Cube Association came in defense of the engineer and the Sub1 Reloaded, officially stating they had approved its use for the demonstration at the Electronica trade show in Munich earlier last week.
On the other hand, Infineon Technologies and the robot’s owner claimed they had broken the record, except there was no representative from Guinness to confirm that was the case.
The company had to submit an application and provide substantial evidence of the achievement for the organization to recognize the feat. Guinness World Records did so on Friday, March 3.
Source: Guinness World Records