Meet Matthew Pidden, a 22-year-old student at the University of Bristol who has achieved the impossible. To prove it, he built a robot that can solve the four-by-four Rubik’s Revenge Rubik’s cube in under a minute and a half 45.305 seconds! This monumental time smashed the former world record of 1 minute and 18 seconds by a whopping 33 seconds. Pidden recently designed this ingenious robot, dubbed “Revenger,” for his final project while completing his bachelor’s degree in computer science.
The four-by-four Rubik’s cube, created by Péter Sebestény in 1981, poses different challenges than its original three-by-three version. Pidden spent 15 weeks constructing and training Revenger. To solve the cube, he outfitted it with two webcams to scan the cube and designed a custom rig for rotating its faces.
Pidden’s robot includes a completely self-developed solving algorithm, enabling it to come up with very efficient solutions for the difficult puzzle. It’s this union of technology and design that places Revenger right at the forefront of the ever-growing leaps and bounds made in robotic cube solving capability.
In an interview with BBC Points West, Pidden shared his motivation for the project, stating, “I was into Rubik’s cubes as a kid. For my final project, I wanted to do something I was actually excited about.” His love for logic puzzles helped him determine which project he wanted to tackle. It’s a testament to his love for the deep math that goes into solving them.
Humans have done incredible things in solving the Rubik’s cube, having recently set a record of only 15.71 seconds. In the meantime, Pidden’s robotic triumph shines a light on the promising potential of automation in high-stakes, very intense competitive puzzle-solving. By successfully racing Revenger, he has proven that machines can go beyond the limits of human beings in this field.
Matthew has accomplished a personal and professional dream in his academic path. It’s an exciting time at this intersection of education and innovation, as evidenced by this accomplishment. As he continues his journey forward, we hope that his work with Revenger will contribute to advances that foster the creative development of automated problem-solving technologies.
