Mitsubishi Electric Corp.’s TOKUFASTbot has set a new Guinness World Record for the fastest robot to solve a Rubik’s Cube, completing the puzzle in just 0.305 seconds. This achievement surpasses the previous record by 0.075 seconds, approaching the speed of an eye blink.
For comparison, the human record for solving a Rubik’s Cube is 3.47 seconds, set by speedcuber Yusheng Du in 2018.
A real-time video of the solve shows the cube being held by six robotic appendages, followed by a blur of motion and a brief clatter, resulting in a solved cube. To make the process observable by humans, Mitsubishi slowed the playback by 42 times, extending the duration to nine seconds.
This speedcubing feat was achieved by a team of young engineers from Mitsubishi’s Component Production Engineering Center in Hyogo, Japan. They built the TOKUFASTbot (TOKUI Fast Accurate Synchronized Motion Testing Robot) in their free time using the company’s advanced factory automation equipment and control technology.
“Shaving off time as much as possible was difficult, but it was fun at the same time,” the team leader told Guinness. “I never had issues with motivation through the project.”
The robot employs a newly developed AI-based color-recognition algorithm for instant color identification. This is particularly challenging due to changing block positions, shadows cast by the robot’s “hands,” and the similar hues of red and orange. The puzzle-solving algorithm is run on an industrial PC optimized for rapid computational processing.
TOKUFASTbot features a proprietary high-speed, high-precision positioning technology used in commercial applications like accurately positioning electric wires in motor coil winding equipment. Its rotation mechanism can rotate the cube 90 degrees in just 0.009 seconds using a compact, high-power servomotor.
Interestingly, one of the main limitations on the robot’s speed was the cube itself. In the first official attempt, the cube jammed, but the second attempt was successful, even surpassing practice times, according to Guinness.
Other components of the robot include six-axis servo motors, programmable controllers, motion modules, servo amplifiers, cameras, and a touch-panel display.