CubeStormer Strikes Again !

[17salvador]

where I find the music rockcube , please?

[boeingrules000123]

cutest thing ever !!! <3

[boeingrules000123]

awww, its so cute (/^o^)/

[hakawalker]

Awesome

[Blacklava5238]

How do you know how to make robots?

[RoboticSolutions]

@Blacklava5238 just by playing around with the LEGO Mindstorms kits you can do cool stuff like this :-)

[MrStickmanSteve]

lol at the end after the credits, it was all like, "Man fuck this shit"

[MrStickmanSteve]

damn machine can solve it faster than I can

[amidget159]

I'm gonna tell my high-school robotics team to try to make that.

[thestomppad]

Amazing machine, I just had to laugh at this...in the credits it says u had a "co editor" ...u mean u needed more than one person to edit that??

[immouv1]

Now give it impossible cubes and see what happens

[Ecohemp]

HOW ?!

[MontaqV3]

meh it'd be more impressive with a smoke machine and lasers ..but the rubiks cube solving part is pretty cool i guess

[XRRoy68210]

LOL'ed @ 3:03

[GroupDenmark]

Proud that Lego is of danish heritage..

and wasnt aware that is was possible in private regi to have such fine connection between software programming and physical action thrue lego.

impressing´ to say the least..

[Roxas308]

i really want to know how to make this i would pay you for the blueprints! no joke

[lliiffee123]

Dude, that's awesome!!!

How did you use Lego mindstorms to scan the cube colours?

[RoboticSolutions]

@lliiffee123 Thanks, it uses frames captured by the Lego Mindstorms USB webcam, read by the colour recognition part of Herbert Kociemba's "CubeExplorer" software.

[lliiffee123]

@RoboticSolutions Ok, and how did you get Cube Explorer to interface with the lego set?

Thanks

[RoboticSolutions]

@lliiffee123 That was the tricky bit, some custom "C" code running on the netbook takes care of the communication between Cube Explorer and the LEGO RCX's. It was expertly written by a very good friend of mine.

[letsplaysdrums]

please make building instructions!

[monsoonsummer]

There's a scene in Spiderman 2 where Doc Ock is standing by his newly rebuilt fusion reactor. With his four robotic arms, it immediately reminded me of CubeStormer. Watch the movie and tell me what you think. By the way, what's up with CubeStormer? Any further improvements?

[theketchupboy]

its lego?

[Shadowerr1]

i want one

[jakegamer97]

could u build me one?

[LEGOtestyacc1991]

can you tell me please, where i can download this nice program???!! thanks!

[chase1146]

lol the bad day it like "ok lets solve this thing,,, what the hell screw you cube" *throws cube out*

[whauk]

i heard that rubot has the official world record for the fastest cube solving machine with ~25 seconds. but this thing is so much faster. dont you want to be the official record holder?

also in speedcubing inspection doesnt count to the solving time. that makes it again faster by ~2 secs.

[georgetroulis]

what hapens if you give him a solved cube? Does he figure it out?

[xludedelux]

Haha 3:03 Cubestormer said fuck it...

[TheCp2388]

I dare u to take a piece out and turn it so its Imposible

[Gargos98]

PLEASE post a video telling how to make this, this is by far the coolest invention i've ever seen!

[Guitareben]

Coolest thing i've ever seen :O

[ehtkhr]

I would spend hours and hours just giving it cubes. I am in love!!!!

[teugi88]

it works with a 2x2x2 ?

[RoboticSolutions]

@teugi88 no, the software im using only supports the 3x3x3 but the grip formation could be used to manipulate a 2x2x2 as required. It would be slightly different in operation as two grips would need to be open during a face turn.

[ipissonyourcat]

what if the cube have a little problem and its block :S

[RoboticSolutions]

@ipissonyourcat Watch the outtake at the end of the video to see what happens......

[JATO457]

maybe a slickcube would make it faster?

[RoboticSolutions]

@JATO457 The slicker the cube the faster the solve so...yes!

[JATO457]

@RoboticSolutions then why not buy a speedcube, they are WAY better than a standard cube.

[TailsBit]

@RoboticSolutions Get some vaseline, go for it man.

[annex1]

This is the stuff of legends. Absolutely fantastic work. It looks as beautiful as it functions, and the loader assembly is genius.

Does the unit have a cube "scramble" function as well?

[RoboticSolutions]

@annex1 Thankyou, no it doesn't have a scramble function, perhaps i'll add that sometime in the future.

[Antheas7]

do it to go faster until it breaks!!!

[asazonov]

Hi, how many motor you using ??

[RoboticSolutions]

@asazonov There are 4 motors in the loader and 24 in Cubestormer (6 in each grip)

[sipungora]

wow amazing...

[Twoyoudude]

amazing... that robot is mentally gay cuz it just blew my mind

[bis0uhr]

absolutely fantastic

[TheMaffo22]

Re you sure you didn't speed up the video (not saying this to hate)

[RoboticSolutions]

@TheMaffo22 Yes, the clock in the video is runnning in real-time!

[oritpro1]

You guys are having way too much fun with this, I love it. :) Cubestormer is awesome!

Since I have an NXT 2.0 set which is pretty limited, I am thinking about building a hybrid Rubik's Cube solver with Lego Mindstorms and using Arduino as the controller.

[proberush]

Cool beans!

[xTheDarkSide100x]

Wat is u take the cube apart and put the corners in spots impossible to solve, what will the machine do?

[RoboticSolutions]

@xTheDarkSide100x It would fail !!

The scan routine needs to see the position of every single square an invalid cube combination would be detected..at which point all motors activate at full power until the cube is destroyed (jk)

[evremn]

@RoboticSolutions add cameras inside the arms and make 6 arms so the robot instantly scans all faces and solves without having to turn the whole cube!

[Myself766]

Have you ever tried what happens if you gave it a unsolvable Cube?

Could be an interesting result. :-\

[MarioNinja345]

Lol guess what i did to my rubix cube once.... i was scrambling it up and i thought yeah thats enough but then i thought ...just a bit more so i started scrambling it again...but ended up solving by accident (TOTALLY RANDOM comment i know) Any way thumbs up if u did this to!!

[JATO457]

@MarioNinja345 i actually can solve it.

[JATO457]

IT'S LEARNINg, RUN!!!!

[fakecubed]

Be honest, you just made the loader that huge because it looks frickin' awesome.

[h7u9i]

For the first solve, it takes 1.4s to look at the cube, so it's actually sub-9 for solving. O.o

[krakelak]

Damn that thing looks like the Large Hardon Collider or something O.O

[ssbmfan4]

THIS VIDEO WAS POSTED APRIL 1ST, IT'S OBVIOUSLY SOME CLEVER PRANK!!!

[darkorbitfanatic]

how long did it take to build? and do you know if they still make the parts to build it?

[RoboticSolutions]

@darkorbitfanatic Most of electronic parts in CubeStormer are no longer manufactured,(excluding the loader which is the current NXT hardware)

As there are no instructions available it would be difficult to determine exactly how long it would take to re-construct.

 If I had all the parts perhaps a weekend would be long enough !?

CubeStormer is still a "work in progress".

[YamiPoyo]

@RoboticSolutions Id call it completed sir. amazing.

[microchrome]

very impressive. I think the key is to work on zero inspection time. Maybe install a few more cameras to shave off a second. I would think if you had another camera on the bottom and maybe two more on the sides you would not need inspection time looking at 4 sides you could more then likely figure out where the other colors are on the cube??? If only you could get the motors to spin it faster! :D

[Killingdyl]

lol the outtake, "screw this cube!"

[AsbjornOlling]

I'm amazed!

It's not so much the robot that amazes me, It's the software that REALLY blows my mind.

[lacsapix]

every scrambeld cube can be solved in 20 turns. its a challange impossible for a normal human mind. but prehaps cubestormer can do it

[RoboticSolutions]

@lacsapix I can set the software to wait until a 20 move solution is found, the only trouble is as it can take up to 30 seconds to find the perfect solution for some cubes eg. the "super-flip" for that reason ive set the upper limit to 21 as it only takes a fraction of a second to calculate. the extra move can be completed by cubestormer in less than a second....its a no-brainer really!

[Hikar755]

@RoboticSolutions But the people solving rubiks cubes to break a worl record are allowed to "scan" the cube and think about it BEFORE the timer is started!

[jakegamer97]

@RoboticSolutions could you buld me one of these

[legoearth500]

I've got cube explorer and I've got an NXT robot, but I can't manage to connect and program Cube Explorer with the NXT. HOw can I do that?

[RoboticSolutions]

@legoearth500 You need to use the web-browser element to Cube Explorer requiring a seperate program running on the same PC which is also capable of sending commands to your robot, think of it as an interface between CubeExplorer and your machine. Cubestormer's program was written using cygwin with some major help from a very clever friend ;-)

[steamsword1]

One word, Pro.

[TheComedyEssence]

dude you should sell a kit to make this with instructions and everything!

[Xd3ATHp0nyX]

3:03 is a DNF!!

[EarDestroyer]

ROFL 3:04.... F%^! this cube I'm done with this!

[Petrified3]

I want one!

[atmhso]

I vote you build a cube scrambling robot, and then just leave them to play with a Rubik's cube all day. Solve, scramble, solve, scramble. They could be friends.

[tvdjeda]

i bet that is your pride and joy

[kerolag]

What about 15 sec inspection time? ;)

[MC2Comedian]

You can participate in the world's best Rubik Cube Robot Solver. :)

[RoboticSolutions]

@amazing0guy2 Cubestormer is built using parts from MANY different sets, 4 copies of the RIS set would be a good start then another 16 motors and four rotation sensors, four copies of the spider slayer set for the teal colour parts also a good idea... Plans to build it ? I'm not so sure i would have the time to do that. Besides it is still a work in progress and subject to change. Perhaps i will think about that when i feel it is at its peak of performance and capable of SUB 7.

[LEGnewTube]

Lol I have a question for you. Can you solve the rubiks cube that fast? Lol seeing as how you maid it you must have to know the algorithms for the rubiks cube.

[RoboticSolutions]

@LEGnewTube - Sadly "No" i'm not a speedcuber myself. CubeStormer is loads better at solving cubes than I am.

[CraiSomeMoar]

How much do you want for this?

[DougieBarclay]

oh man, how pissed would you be if a burglar broke in and took to it with a baseball bat haha. No but really, how long did this take you to create?

[TheAce0]

What method does it use? As in, what kind of algo do you follow while solving it? What does it look for?

[RoboticSolutions]

@TheAce0 Cubstormer uses CUBE EXPLORER to find the solution, it is a two-phase algorithm that finds most solutions in under 21 moves in a fraction of a second.

[MrBlokGuy]

to not have to include the lookover in the solve time and it could use the extra seconds maybe to obtain a better solution in fewer moves? Just saying that would be awesome (more so than it already is)

[MrBlokGuy]

I'm pretty sure in human competitions, you get a 15 second lookover time. Cubestormer could use that n

[AxelTheGreat482]

The cube loader should have a scramble feature.

[ShokaLion]

That is an astonishing piece of engineering. Lego or not, that is an incredible bit of kit. Many many congratulations. Who'd have thought you could build such stuff with humble lego. How do you get it to track so quickly and stay accurate? I just never knew you could get such speed with lego bits. I suppose it's just gearing, but it's still incredibly impressive to watch.

[MrSuperVirus]

that was amazing, lol at the cubestormer on bad day

[Degenskonto]

It'd be fun to make it error by painting in a 10th green cube for instance lol

[nosloppyagape]

you could seriously sell tht thing for alot of money!

[mjenk430]

How are you able to stop the arm rotation so precisely. I have tried to build a couple different versions of a NXT cube solver over the last couple of years, and have never been successful at getting the rotation of the cube to stop accurately and consistently. Do you use some sort of stop or is it in the programming?

[RoboticSolutions]

@mjenk430 Using the NXT for this task should be more straight forward as it has at least 10 x the resolution of the RCX equivalent with its built in rotation sensors. I think you may need to work out how to slow the motors down before

the grips reach the required stopping point. Cubestormer uses a few tricks to overcome this but its very fine motor control that is the key to success !

[Jibes]

Shouldn't it be 'relatively' easy to get the software to recognize when the robot has an improper hold on the cube and abort the solve, rather than, well, do what happened in the outtake?

[gregorioant]

Whats is the program as you use, can you publy please? it was possible with the robolab? XD

srry for my bad english, im spanish.

and whats lego set code?

thanx :D

[RoboticSolutions]

@gregorioant I'm afraid i have not used robolab, I used a "C" baised compiler and "Brixcc" to write the code for the laptop and the RCX's/NXT, CubeStormer is built using pieces from many different Lego sets.

[gregorioant]

Whats is the program as you use, it waws created for you no? XD thats impose make this with the robolab 2.5.4 no? sorry for my bad english im spanish

thanx :D

[artman40]

Bet next there'll be a hybrid of MultiCuber and CubeStormer.

[IAssemble]

@artman40 - now that's an interesting idea!?! How about it Mike? ;-)

[aurelio703]

@IAssemble That would be cool, a Record beating MultiCuber :-)... The problem is that claw based solvers aren't able to solve anything bigger that 3x3x3, it can't turn the center rows...

[aurelio703]

Have you already beaten the human world record?

[Whamesl0l]

@aurelio703 no, the (official) record is 7.08 seconds, but people have done faster, but just have'nt set it for the world record

[aurelio703]

@Whamesl0l I know the Official record is 7.08, but it's a single "lucky" solve. I'm pretty sure CubeStormer record was something near 6s, 10s would be CubeStormer's avarage... About people having done it faster I don't know....

[Whamesl0l]

@aurelio703 it would be cool to see this robot in the next book of records tho :D

[aurelio703]

@Whamesl0l Yep, I totally agree!

[aurelio703]

GREAT JOB MIKE!!!

[Kabuthunk]

Shouldn't its solve time actually be shorter? All other speed cubers are given time to examine the cube (15 seconds I believe), so I imagine you'd be able to slice the 'examination' portion of the time off.

[Kabuthunk]

@Kabuthunk Aaaand I just noticed that the person immediately below me commented on the same thing. Well, that'll teach me to read previous comments first :P

[RoboticSolutions]

@Kabuthunk I had a few comments on earlier videos that the total solve time includes scanning (for robot solvers) and given that the scan is less than 2 seconds...id say it gives cubestormer the EDGE!

[porotomon]

Speedcubers take 15 seconds to inspect the cube. Then they start solving. Your robot use 2 seconds to inspect, so your record is 7.2 seconds.

[Mecanico78]

that's awsome!!!!

[redkb]

Oh and by the way. Awesome job!

[redkb]

It would be cool if it used a stackmat timer. The ones they use in speedcubing competitions. Then the flow should be like this:

1. You place the cube infront of the robot.

2. Robot picks the cube up takes a pic of each side.

3. Robot puts the cube down.

4. Robot puts two LEGO arms down on the stackmat timer.

5. Robot lifts two LEGO arms starting the stackmat timer.

6. Robot lifts the Cube and starts solving

7. Robot Drops the cube and puts LEGO arms back on stackmat timer stopping timer.

[IAssemble]

@redkb - now that's a great idea! How about it Mike - Reckon you can beat 7.08s with just the load, solve and unload time included? ;-)

[RoboticSolutions]

@IAssemble sounds like another challenge...hmmm...given that the load / unload time is about the same as the scan time i think its probably something i could aim for...but don't hold your breath lol,

[fishbone0]

Could you maybe save some time by reading the colors in another order?

Like: Front, Up, Left, Back, Down, Right, or would it take longer because you have to change grip more often?

[RoboticSolutions]

@fishbone0 I see your point ,that however is the order in which "cube Explorer" is set to scan cubes, if i altered the sequence then the orientation of some faces would be incorrect. and you are right,changing grip takes more time! thankyou anyway :-)

[aurelio703]

@RoboticSolutions I must say that after all this time of cube solving you should already hade developed your own color regocnition software..... Which would be both faster and more accurate than Cube Explorer's....

[aurelio703]

Great Jog Mike, really impressive cube loader, I wonder when you are going to beat the Human Record of 7.08. At first I though the cube loader was just a normal arm, not a compact inverted loading machine, hehehe

[NYVonix115]

Speechless!

[lordskull14]

i'm extremely impressed...that's amazing :D congrats

[hajyandz]

nice this would be awsome: a rubiks cube team, you have 2 robots now build one that scramble random to then! That would be awsome!!!!!

[Zeptobyter]

Great vid man! Keep it up

[TheJoshJman]

WOW! genius...

[IAssemble]

Mike - you have surpassed yourself again - absolutely awesome! Under 10 seconds - wow - you deserve to be a Guiness World Record holder for this. I love the new RockCube music, the lightening fast NXT cube loader and the "bad day" out-take at the end.... What will you achive next I wonder? ;-)