Robot built by Bristol student obliterates 4×4 Rubik’s cube record

A student’s robot has beaten the world record for solving a four-by-four Rubik’s cube – by 33 seconds.

Matthew Pidden, a 22-year-old University of Bristol student, built and trained the “Revenger” over 15 weeks for his computer science bachelor’s degree.

The robot solved the cube in 45.305 seconds, obliterating the world record of 1 minute 18 seconds. However, the human record for solving the cube is 15.71 seconds.

“I was into Rubik’s cubes as a kid. For my final project, I wanted to do something I was actually excited about,” Mr Pidden told BBC Points West.

“Mathematically, they’re really interesting,” he said.

“I watched a video solving a Rubik’s cube and thought it was so fun.”

Mr Pidden’s robot uses dual webcams to scan the cube, a custom mechanism to manipulate the faces, and a fully self-built solving algorithm to generate efficient solutions.

The student now plans to study for a master’s degree in robotics at Imperial College London.

The Rubik’s cube is a combination puzzle invented by Hungarian sculptor Ernő Rubik in 1974.

The goal of the puzzle is to arrange the squares so that each of the faces of the cube displays a single colour.

The original version has three-by-three squares on each face. The four-by-four, also known as “Rubik’s Revenge”, was invented by Hungarian Péter Sebestény in 1981.