Two brothers in the U.K. have set a new Guinness World Record. Their robot, named The Revenger, solved a four-by-four Rubik's Cube in just 45.3 seconds. This time is 33 seconds faster than the previous record.
The Revenger even broke its own earlier record of 55 seconds, which it set just a few tries before. Matthew and Thomas Pidden, both university students, built the robot.
How The Revenger Works
The Pidden brothers spent 15 weeks building The Revenger. It has two main parts: a physical structure and special software. Two webcams scan the Rubik's Cube, while two robot arms grab and move it.
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A laptop runs a unique algorithm, which acts as the robot's brain. This algorithm uses data from the webcams to quickly figure out how to solve the cube. During trials, plastic shutters covered the webcams until the timer started. This made sure the robot didn't get an unfair head start.
The robot's record-breaking attempts happened last year at the University of Bristol. Guinness World Records officially recognized the achievement this week. Matthew Pidden explained that he wanted to break the record as part of his final undergraduate project. He combined his childhood love for Rubik's Cubes with his interest in computer science.
The robot solved the cube six times in total. The first two tries didn't beat the old record. But the third attempt set a new record of 55 seconds. The brothers knew their robot could do even better. After more tries, it achieved the current record of 45.3 seconds on its sixth attempt. A cheering crowd watched as the cube's faces turned to a single color.
Other Cube-Solving Robots
The 45.3-second record is specifically for the 4x4x4 Rubik's Cube. The original 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube, invented by Ernő Rubik in 1974, has been solved much faster by robots.
The world record for a robot solving a 3x3x3 cube is an astonishing 0.103 seconds. This is faster than a human can blink. Engineering students at Purdue University achieved this feat.
Humans are also very fast. The fastest time for a person to solve an original Rubik's Cube is 2.76 seconds. This impressive record was set by a nine-year-old.
