Details: Believe it or not, cubesolvers are not the only thing you can build out of LEGO for use with Rubik's cubes. You can also build the cube itself. This (admittedly oversized) cube is built in an entirely purist manner - no modified pieces, although some rather unusual Technic trickery was required. This classic model was built several years ago, but we had to share it today - the 30th anniversary of the Rubik's cube being sold in America. Of course, you'll probably want to celebrate by solving smaller cubes - this one's a little hefty for casual use.
Details:
Yes, I know it's been just two weeks since I last featured an awesome cube solver. Sometimes you just need to find machines that can handle the rest of the Rubik's cube collection, though. The one can handle my 4x4x4 Rubik's cubes (except, of course, for the one rigged to explode, but isn't safety from that the main reason to let a machine solve this simple puzzle instead of solving it for yourself?). This machine can do more than just solve 3x3x3 and 4x4x4 cubes, though - it can also solve (as shown in the video) 5x5x5 Rubik's Cubes! You can see in the video the mechanism for allowing this - the cube is lifted to various heights to turn specific groups of layers, as compared to the simple twists of one-third of the cube that we're used to seeing. The design works for those three sizes of Rubik's cube without any modifications (minor modifications will allow it to solve 2x2x2 and 6x6x6 cubes as well). All of that, while amazing, is within the realm of things you could probably figure out how to build, given enough time and parts. This creation goes beyond that, though - much like the CubeStormer from two weeks ago, this is a purist creation that even uses the LEGO-branded Logitech QuickCam from the 9731 Vision Command set. Don't be fooled by the fact that we're seeing these put to good use now - the tech involved in that camera is now ten years old, and the SDK (Software Development Kit) used to program it outside of the graphical environment has not been maintained and is no longer supported. While putting the branded QuickCam to good use is increasingly becoming a difficult challenge (and an academic one, as so few people are big enough LEGO nerds to care if your LEGO robot is truly 100% LEGO down to the camera, and LEGO is yet to release a LEGO PC to truly finish the job), this model actually one-up's that too. The CubeStormer still communicated with the RCX. Now, the software challenge has been increased a bit - the computer interacts directly with the NXT based on the QuickCam input (the magic here is handled by C++). Successful projects that combine Vision Command and the NXT are few and far between, but this one is a clear winner.
Details:
We've seen Rubik's cube solvers before. It's been a while, though, since we've seen one that used the Vision Command system. The 9731 Vision Command set was a standard Logitech Quickcam web inside, but thanks to the included software and the API that was available online at the time, they could be used with a PC to control a LEGO Mindstorms RCX. While LEGO and Logitech have both stopped supporting this product, it can still be useful in the right hands - such as those of the builder of today's model.
The program comes up with a solution for the cube - any 3x3x3 Rubik's cube - solves it, and tells the RCX (which in turn powers the lights and motors, which in turn (through mechanisms not entirely clear from the video) manipulate the cube) what moves to make to leave the puzzle in a solved state. All of that happens in less than 12 seconds, regardless of how scrambled the cube is. That alone would be an exceptional feat, but it's kicked up a notch in retro-LEGO-chic with 9V lights and a perfect Cyber Slam (the "Cyber Slam" theme was known as "Competition" outside of the US) color scheme. The use of that LEGO-branded webcam makes this project "purist" in a stricter sense than most Technic/Mindstorms people care about (still worth extra points in my book, though).
While I'd love to write more about what's going on here, how it was programmed, what mechanisms were used, etc, I don't have any more details to share. Maybe if the builder could post a second video that looks behind-the-scenes...
Details: I know I have previously featured a Rubik's Cube Solver, but this one improves on that idea quite a bit. The design of this robot is much simpler, much trendier (note the all-studless LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT base) and much more efficient at scanning and solving a Rubik's Cube. There was no cheating used here, either. This is just a beautiful design and a well-thought out algorithm. The write-up offered here is quite thorough and well-worth a read, so I'll just leave this post at that and let you read about it firsthand.
Details: One of the more famous Lego Mindstorms robots out there is this 'bot that solves Rubik's cubes. Truth be told, this is actually fairly simple - it's just a few Lego Technic arm assemblies with a limited range of motion hooked up to a Lego Vision command set (link coming soon (or in 2010 when I realize that this still says "link coming soon" - oops!)). Maybe it's the beauty of the simple design that makes it so exciting, but it might also be the fact that so few of us have three Lego Technic turntables. Granted, it takes a certain amount of computing skill and perseverance to get the program going, and it can be hard to track down the proper parts for this sort of thing, but the mechanics and building-related part of the deal isn't that difficult. The programming was done in Visual Basic. Let's be honest though - most people can't solve Rubik's cubes easily and are fascinated by the robot's ability to solve them.
Sadly, some cheating was used to make the Rubik's cube easier to manipulate. However, this wouldn't have been required if older (read: worn-in) cubes had been used.
Just a quick housekeeping note: today's post was titled "Robotics Monday" because I plan on only featuring Lego Mindstorms-based material on Mondays. So if you don't like Lego robotics, you can skip this blog on Monday, or if you only like robotics, you can make a point to only read on Mondays. I'm hoping to feature a variety of models here, and this is just a way of making sure that this blog doesn't get overrun with Lego Mindstorms stuff. Feel free to let me know what you think of this in the comments, or you can send an e-mail to legomodeloftheday@gmail.com
Believe it or not, cubesolvers are not the only thing you can build out of LEGO for use with Rubik's cubes. You can also build the cube itself. This (admittedly oversized) cube is built in an entirely purist manner - no modified pieces, although some rather unusual Technic trickery was required. This classic model was built several years ago, but we had to share it today - the 30th anniversary of the Rubik's cube being sold in America. Of course, you'll probably want to celebrate by solving smaller cubes - this one's a little hefty for casual use. 
collection, though. The one can handle my 
(except, of course, for the one rigged to explode, but isn't safety from that the main reason to let a machine solve this simple puzzle instead of solving it for yourself?). This machine can do more than just solve 3x3x3 and 4x4x4 cubes, though - it can also solve (as shown in the video) 
! You can see in the video the mechanism for allowing this - the cube is lifted to various heights to turn specific groups of layers, as compared to the simple twists of one-third of the cube that we're used to seeing. The design works for those three sizes of Rubik's cube without any modifications (minor modifications will allow it to solve 2x2x2 and 6x6x6 cubes as well). All of that, while amazing, is within the realm of things you could probably figure out how to build, given enough time and parts. This creation goes beyond that, though - much like the 
base) and much more efficient at scanning and solving a Rubik's Cube. There was no cheating used here, either. This is just a beautiful design and a well-thought out algorithm. The write-up offered here is quite thorough and well-worth a read, so I'll just leave this post at that and let you read about it firsthand.
