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New world record: robot solves Rubik's Cube in 305 milliseconds

29.5.2024

Translation: machine translated

From air conditioners to world records: The Tokufastbot from Mitsubishi Electric solved the Rubik's Cube in just 0.305 seconds, setting a new world record. Fortunately, it was also filmed in slow motion.

The Rubik's Cube, also known as the Rubik's Cube, is now 50 years old and is still very popular. The Hungarian architect, civil engineer and inventor Ernő Rubik originally wanted to use the game to help his students train their spatial thinking skills. The cube consists of 3 x 3 x 3 moving blocks. Now a robot from Mitsubishi Electric has set a new Guinness World Record for solving the Rubik's cube. The robot is called Tokui Fast Accurate Synchronised Motion Testing Robot, or Tokufastbot for short. It only needed 0.305 seconds to solve the rotating puzzle cube. 75 milliseconds faster than the previous record of 0.38 seconds, which was set in 2018 by another robot designed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The record has been continually beaten over the years. In 2009, it stood at one minute and four seconds. In 2016, the record fell below the one-second brand for the first time.

Details about the Tokufastbot

The Tokufastbot is normally used to assemble electric motors, such as those used in air conditioning systems. According to Mitsubishi, its servomotors are capable of performing a 90-degree rotation in just 0.009 seconds. In addition, it has an AI-controlled algorithm that can recognise colours.

It was difficult to save as much time as possible, but it was fun at the same time. I never had any motivation problems during the project.

Tokui, team leader of Tokufastbot

However, an unexpected problem arose during the further development of the machine: The puzzle cube couldn't keep up with the robot's speed. To prevent the cube from jamming or blocking in any way, the team worked particularly hard on fine-tuning, according to Mitsubishi Electric. The first official attempt failed because the magic cube jammed. The world record was only broken on the second attempt.

The human record: slightly slower, but still fast

The current human record has stood at 3.13 seconds since 2023. It was set by the US speedcuber Max Park. He also holds world records in many other cube disciplines.

Park was also one of the main protagonists of the Netflix documentary "The Speed Cubers". My colleague Ramon wrote an article about the series four years ago.