Comments on: Nerd trifecta

Nerd trifecta

grouse — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:42:49 -0800

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.

By: Chan

Chan — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:49:16 -0800

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

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:52:59 -0800

This is why I come to Metafilter.

By: C17H19NO3

C17H19NO3 — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:57:36 -0800

I still haven't solved one. I'm not very ambitious I guess.

By: signalnine

signalnine — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:58:20 -0800

That's pretty great.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:15:44 -0800

I knew this day would one day come.

By: dhammond

dhammond — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:19:03 -0800

Yeah, but does it have elbows?

By: fantabulous timewaster

fantabulous timewaster — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:31:03 -0800

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.

By: longsleeves

longsleeves — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:31:58 -0800

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?

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:56:50 -0800

Wait... now Legos smarter that I am? Damn, that's gonna leave a bruise.

By: ryanrs

ryanrs — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:05:54 -0800

I'm more impressed with the mechanics than the programming. The combination of turntable plus flipper/grabber is very elegant.

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:35:40 -0800

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.

By: hifiparasol

hifiparasol — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:53:57 -0800

Well, this beats the shit out of the goddamn moon rover I made today.

By: dprs75

dprs75 — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:54:47 -0800

Moon rover , I'm crossing you in style

By: maxwelton

maxwelton — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:56:36 -0800

The only thing I made today was mistakes. This is really neat.

By: JoeXIII007

JoeXIII007 — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:21:23 -0800

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.

By: paladin

paladin — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:37:02 -0800

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?

By: Mastercheddaar

Mastercheddaar — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 06:05:19 -0800

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

By: bondcliff

bondcliff — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 06:15:13 -0800

I want to build a Lego robot that can chill and mix 3oz of Gin, a dash of vermouth and an olive.

By: woodway

woodway — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 06:24:03 -0800

So AI has progressed from outwitting chess world champions to solving Rubik's cubes... Huh.

By: trondant

trondant — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 06:26:10 -0800

to figure out the optimal solution. Which, as we all know, is taking the thing apart and reassembling it in its solved state.

By: Biblio

Biblio — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 06:31:49 -0800

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.

By: caddis

caddis — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:10:38 -0800

Old news

By: caddis

caddis — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:12:05 -0800

oops, I meant: old news

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:32:02 -0800

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.

By: sebastienbailard

sebastienbailard — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:32:12 -0800

Bondcliff, that would be the Festival for Cocktail-Robotics, this week in Vienna (and Spring 2009 in SF). (Pics)

By: CynicalKnight

CynicalKnight — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:58:50 -0800

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.

By: erikvan

erikvan — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:05:27 -0800

and i thought my old armatron was cool

By: Rhaomi

Rhaomi — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:28:13 -0800

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...)

By: grouse

grouse — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:13:32 -0800

and i thought my old armatron was cool All the cool kids had one. Check out how cool the kids on the box were.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:42:57 -0800

For god's sake do not introduce any of these things to the squid with elbows.

By: rube goldberg

rube goldberg — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 19:58:50 -0800

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.

By: rube goldberg

rube goldberg — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:00:10 -0800

oops, wrong thread. (and on my first mefi comment, too)