Purdue University engineering students build record-breaking Rubik’s Cube solving robot

Engineering students from Purdue University’s Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering have made history by building a robot they dubbed Purdubik’s Cube that now holds the Guinness World Record for “Fastest robot to solve a puzzle cube.” The team of students who built the robot first unveiled their creation in December 2024 at the university’s student design competition, SPARK, which went on to beat the previous record that was set by Mitsubishi Electric engineers in Japan in May 2024.

According to an article on Purdue University’s website, Milind Kulkarni, who serves as the Michael and Katherine Birck Head and Professor of Purdue ECE, was quoted as saying of the team’s achievement, “Take brilliant students, give them the tools and opportunities, and they’ll blow your mind. Four undergraduate ECE students, in less than a year, crushed a record set by a world-class team at Mitsubishi. I always say we have the best ECE students in the country — and this proves it. I couldn’t be more proud.”

The four members of the team are Alex Berta, Aden Hurd, Junpei Ota, and Matthew Patrohay. Hurd, Ota, and Patrohay first came together through the university’s Cooperative Education Program, which gives students the opportunity to gain real-world workplace experience by completing paid work for employers. By networking with individuals they met during their co-op experiences, the team was able to garner corporate sponsorships for the project.

Hurd said, “Our team came together because of the co-op program. It helped us build not only the friendships that led to this collaboration, but also the professional and technical skills we needed to actually pull it off.”

Purdubik’s Cube uses machine vision to see the cube’s colors, custom solving algorithms, and motion control hardware. The team created an interactive aspect to the robot: the Bluetooth-enabled “Smart Cube” that allows anyone to scramble the puzzle. Once the user is done scrambling, Purdubik’s Cube is able to instantly unscramble the user’s moves.

Not only does the robot solve a Rubik’s Cube, but it also does it fast.

Patrohay said, “We solve in 103 milliseconds. A human blink takes about 200 to 300 milliseconds. So, before you even realize it’s moving, we’ve solved it.”

Shreyas Sundaram, who is the Marie Gordon Professor of ECE and the co-director of Purdue’s Institute for Control, Optimization and Networks, which co-sponsored the project, said, “From the days of the Apollo program, Purdue researchers and students have been designing control systems that enable groundbreaking new capabilities. The Purdubik’s Cube team is a prime example of how Purdue is bringing algorithms, robotics, and control together to achieve great feats of engineering.”

Patrohay noted that he had always been inspired by record-holding cube solvers. He said, “I always say that my inspiration was a previous world record holder. Back in high school, I saw a video of MIT students solving the cube in 380 milliseconds. I thought, ‘That’s a really cool project. I’d love to try and beat it someday.’ Now here I am at Purdue—proving we can go even faster.”

For more information about Purdue University, visit the school’s website.