Rubik's cube solved; not an iota of brainpower used
I vividly remember Rubik's cube. That pesky little excuse for a toy. I remember how I would be handed one whenever I caused any commotion and how I would brood over one, twisting and turning it, till I realized that I had made no progress in the last two hours. For all the kids who are subjected to the same fate, there's a reason to finally rejoice.
Daniele Benedettelli has created an AI that can solve these mind-boggling puzzles in no time. Tagged 'Lego Rubik Utopy Project,' Daniele's efforts to improve upon AI have finally fructified and resulted in a neat robot (that for all purposes looks like Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc.)
The robot can grab and rotate the cube to align the faces properly. And though it looks really cool to us (lesser) mortals, Daniele believes it is quite slow. He says that it takes 2'10' to scan the entire cube. This is by no means first foray of his into building a Rubik's cube solver and the latest version is only an improvement over the previous version.
Benedettelli's effort is inspired by JP Brown's robot and though not as sophisticated in looks, it can certainly match former in efficacy. It uses 2 NXT bricks (communicating via Bluetooth), 4 servomotors and 2 light sensors.) Read further technicalities on Daniele's website.
Meanwhile, here is a video of the Lego Robot in action:
