Nerd trifecta

December 4, 2008 11:42 PM

A robot made out of Lego bricks that solves a Rubik's cube. Video of the robot in action. Includes full blueprints for building and source code.
posted by grouse (32 comments total)

Great, now Skynet will solve all of our Rubik's cubes when it takes over. All hope is lost.
posted by Chan at 11:49 PM on December 4, 2008 [1 favorite]

This is why I come to Metafilter.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:52 PM on December 4, 2008

I still haven't solved one.

I'm not very ambitious I guess.
posted by C17H19NO3 at 11:57 PM on December 4, 2008

That's pretty great.
posted by signalnine at 11:58 PM on December 4, 2008

I knew this day would one day come.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:15 AM on December 5, 2008

Yeah, but does it have elbows?
posted by dhammond at 12:19 AM on December 5, 2008

This is an interesting lesson:

The performance of NXT’s processor is quite sufficient for typical robot-tasks. But when it comes to heavy calculations it is significantly slower than an ordinary PC. This rules out heuristic-algorithms (which generates sub 30-moves solutions). Instead I tried to find a method to solve the cube, whith limited number of algorithms but that still would generate a solution with not too many moves.

There's a lesson lurking in here, where it's quicker to solve the thing than to figure out the optimal solution.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 12:31 AM on December 5, 2008

Look, if I can't solve a Rubik's cube, what would make someone think I'd be capable of building this robot to do it for me?
posted by longsleeves at 12:31 AM on December 5, 2008 [3 favorites]

Wait... now Legos smarter that I am?




Damn, that's gonna leave a bruise.
posted by louche mustachio at 12:56 AM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

I'm more impressed with the mechanics than the programming. The combination of turntable plus flipper/grabber is very elegant.
posted by ryanrs at 1:05 AM on December 5, 2008

Awesome post, but now I fear we'll have to buy this Mindstorms edition (we have the original). I was hoping to hold out until they increase the number of ins and outs. We'll see.
posted by Goofyy at 1:35 AM on December 5, 2008

Well, this beats the shit out of the goddamn moon rover I made today.
posted by hifiparasol at 2:53 AM on December 5, 2008

Moon rover , I'm crossing you in style
posted by dprs75 at 3:54 AM on December 5, 2008

The only thing I made today was mistakes.

This is really neat.
posted by maxwelton at 3:56 AM on December 5, 2008

For some reason I cannot seem to track down the clip of the old RCX version of this on the Screen Savers of TechTV... thought it was amazing then, still do now.
posted by JoeXIII007 at 4:21 AM on December 5, 2008

Color me impressed. Seriously, AI is going to be invented by someone working in his garage, or basement, and who knows who'll be the first to hit the wall when the revolution comes?
posted by paladin at 5:37 AM on December 5, 2008

We should melt them all down now before they enslave us all! Unless I buy a set and build my own lego rubik's cube solving robot.... YES future of mankind saved. Don't everyone thank me at once. Link to midstorm products
posted by Mastercheddaar at 6:05 AM on December 5, 2008

I want to build a Lego robot that can chill and mix 3oz of Gin, a dash of vermouth and an olive.
posted by bondcliff at 6:15 AM on December 5, 2008

So AI has progressed from outwitting chess world champions to solving Rubik's cubes... Huh.
posted by woodway at 6:24 AM on December 5, 2008

to figure out the optimal solution.
Which, as we all know, is taking the thing apart and reassembling it in its solved state.
posted by trondant at 6:26 AM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

This is SO cool. We just bought our kids the Mindstorm kit for Christmas and I can't wait to see what kind of stuff they come up with. I think they will probably program theirs to make more Lego bricks, so that eventually we will drown in a sea of plastic.
posted by Biblio at 6:31 AM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

Old news
posted by caddis at 7:10 AM on December 5, 2008

oops, I meant: old news
posted by caddis at 7:12 AM on December 5, 2008

Wow - it's been done a lot. The scariest one I've seen: robo-death-grip-bot - the shaky video makes it even more menacing.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:32 AM on December 5, 2008

Bondcliff, that would be the Festival for Cocktail-Robotics, this week in Vienna (and Spring 2009 in SF). (Pics)
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:32 AM on December 5, 2008

now Skynet will solve all of our Rubik's cubes when it takes over. All hope is lost.


Not so fast! Big Sister will save us!

Big Sister is the only force in the universe capable of smashing to smithereens entire Lego constructs with one cruel swipe of her Onyx Mary Janes.
posted by CynicalKnight at 7:58 AM on December 5, 2008

and i thought my old armatron was cool
posted by erikvan at 10:05 AM on December 5, 2008

Meh, it probably just peeled off all the stickers and put them back on in the right order.

(Which, now that I think about it, would probably be a more impressive feat for a Lego robot than solving it the normal way...)
posted by Rhaomi at 11:28 AM on December 5, 2008

and i thought my old armatron was cool

All the cool kids had one. Check out how cool the kids on the box were.
posted by grouse at 2:13 PM on December 5, 2008

For god's sake do not introduce any of these things to the squid with elbows.
posted by mediareport at 3:42 PM on December 5, 2008

I would so love to have a couple hundred of these blocks...
... and a mobile version of the Rubik's cube solving robot to go about arranging them for me.
posted by rube goldberg at 7:58 PM on December 21, 2008

oops, wrong thread. (and on my first mefi comment, too)
posted by rube goldberg at 8:00 PM on December 21, 2008