Solving a Rubik’s cube is difficult. But Rubik’s cube is a big challenge enjoyed by many people around the world. And not just humans, even Robots have their share of fun in solving those miniature pieces. Last year in March, a robot called the Sub1 solved a Rubik’s Cube in just 0.637 seconds and registered into Guinness Book of World Records for being the fastest cube-solving bot. Now, the record seems to be in jeopardy as a pair of engineers’ creation can solve a Rubik’s cube in a blink of an eye— in just 0.38 seconds. Yes, it can find the solution in mere fraction of seconds.

So far, the best a human could accomplish is a time of 4.69 seconds by Patrick Ponce from United States, who holds the Rubik's Cube World Record. The teenager's remarkable display beats the previous record holder Australian Feliks Zemdegs in just 0.05 seconds.

This new robot is created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) robotics student Ben Katz and software developer Jared Di Carlo. Di Carlo said in a blog post, “Our solve time of 0.38 seconds includes acquiring the image from the webcam, detecting colours, finding a solution, and actually rotating the faces of the cube.” He further revealed his secret to beating the previous robot’s best time was using better motors. Of course, machines are fast and hence not all cubes can survive such experiment. But Carlo admitted in the same blog post that to achieve the success they ended up going through 4 cubes with more than a hundred solves.

Don’t blink!

The creators say that they have developed special controllers for the robot’s six motors to ensure that only one is moving at any given time. Well, we cannot say or even predict if such records can be achieved by human beings. As solving these colourful miniatures is not easy. Plus peeling off the stickers does not count! Nevertheless, it is fun to see robots setting the components of the cube.  And we hope that Katz and Carlo’s creation make its way to the Guinness World Record soon!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 08, 2018 04:52 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).