CubeStormer II

The first version of CubeStormer solved Rubik's Cube in about 11 seconds. This version of CubeStormer does it in about half that time. This is absolutely impressive!

I solved the Rubik's Cube years ago with difficulty and only after having bought a book with instructions on the method. I never could do Rubik's Revenge, even with a book full of instructions more complex than for Rubik's Cube.

The mechanical assembly for CubeStormer II is made from Lego parts. The robotics control is powered by four Lego Mindstorms NXT kits. The robot's brain is provided by a Samsung Galaxy SII smartphone running Android. Both the Mindstorms NXT kits and the Samsung Galaxy SII smartphone use ARM-based processors. The smartphone camera is used to capture images of the Rubik's Cube surfaces. The Android app running in the smartphone solves the Rubik's Cube. The smartphone app communicates with the robotics control (the ARM processors in the Lego NXT kits) using Bluetooth.

In October, 2011, the CubeStormer II set a new Guinness World Record for the fastest Rubik’s Cube completion time at 5.27 seconds.