Lego Mindstorm Robot Solves Rubik’s Cube in Minutes

Hans Anderson has developed a Lego Mindstorm robot named "Tilted Twister" that solves Rubik's cube in minutes. With built-in sensors and chip processor the robot solves the puzzle within 60 moves.

This is another great leap forward in the Robotics industry. Hans Anderson has developed this "Tilted Twister" that solves the Rubik's Cube puzzle in minutes. It has an ultrasonic sensor scans the Rubik's Cube faces and reads the colors of the cube faces using a built-in light sensor. The robot is able to turn the faces, so the sensor reads all the color points.

Then an on-board computer like processor calculates the solution and moves the faces by turning, tilting and twisting the cube by means of three servo motors and four sensors (touch, light, ultrasonic and sound). The robot was built solely using a Lego Mindstorm NXT Retail-kit, which retails for about $240 in Amazon and other sites.

If you want a build a Tilted Twister on your own, he has outlined his methods at this link here.

He said the colors in the Rubik's cube caused confusion for the light sensors, but he modified the color slightly so they can recognize it well. He has found a suitable color sensor that can detect the existing colors without any problems, but if you don't have the HiTechnic color sensor, then you can adjust the colors manually.

The article provides information how he used special algorithms and made it easy for the on-board NXT's processor to solve the puzzle within 60 moves.

The typical sequence of solving the Rubik’s Cube is as follows:

• Scanning the cube: 1 minute

• Calculating a solution: 20 - 40 seconds

• Executing the moves: 1 - 5 minutes. Average 4.5 minutes (60 face turns)

• Average total time: 6 minutes

This is simply amazing, great effort by Anderson.