BOT VERSUS BOY: Connor Abbott, 12, built and programmed a robot from a Lego Mindstorms NXT kit to take on younger brother Ryan, 10. Ryan [right] bested the bot four out of five times, proving there is still hope for humanity.
Image: © KATHLEEN ABBOTT
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When the Rubik's Cube burst on the scene in the U.S. in 1980, it sparked a fascination with the puzzle that continues to this day, even among fans born decades after the Cube's debut. Except that, instead of humans attempting to "speed cube" to a solution in less than 10 seconds, many Rubik's Cube fans today build robots to do it for them. This A.I.-enthusiasm offers the added challenge of not only solving the puzzle but also of creating a robot that can physically manipulate the cube based on that solution.
For 12-year-old Connor Abbott, building a Rubik's Cube-solving bot gave him a chance to practice his computer programming skills and learn from other accomplished bot makers. Abbott's bot also served as a competitor to challenge 10-year-old brother Ryan's speed-cubing prowess. Both boys were introduced to the puzzle by their father, Michael Abbott, a General Electric Money executive and former IBM Research engineer.
Connor Abbott got the idea for his robot from reading about Cube enthusiasts who had built bots to solve the puzzle using the Lego Mindstorms NXT kit. "I said, 'Hey, I have an NXT kit,'" says Connor, a native of New Canaan, Conn., who will be in the eighth grade when he returns to school this fall. For the uninitiated, Mindstorms is a Lego product that includes most of the components needed to build a robot, including the company's trademark bricks as well as three servo motors, four sensors (ultrasonic, sound, touch, and light), gears and axles.
"At first I didn't know [Mindstorms] could be used to solve a Rubik's Cube because I didn't think it had enough motors," Connor says. This changed last year when Connor discovered a robot via the Web that was built from a single NXT kit by Daniele Benedettelli, 24, a programmer studying robotics and automation at Italy's University of Siena. (Benedettelli's bot can be seen at his Web site.) "People are amazed by the fact that a Lego (thus a toy) robot can solve such a brainy puzzle so easily," Benedettelli says, adding that Rubik's Cube has come to be seen as "the" symbol of complex problems that can be solved by applying "intelligence and dexterity."
Of course, the robot cannot solve the puzzle without explicit instructions on how to do so. For the software, Connor used a freely available cube-solving program called Optimal Cube Solver in the Quarter Turn Metric (OPTIQTM) created by Herbert Kociemba, 55, a mathematics and physics teacher from Darmstadt, Germany. Kociemba expressed surprise at Connor's choice to use OPTIQTM, given that the program can take anywhere from minutes to hours to find the "optimal" solution for solving a Cube, depending on how many times the puzzle has been twisted and turned. The program can, however, compute a solution "in a reasonable time" if the puzzle is scrambled using 19 moves or fewer, he says.
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10 Comments
Add CommentLooks like the kid is an expert systems integrator: "...discovered a robot via the Web that was built from a single NXT kit by Daniele Benedettelli...", "...used a freely available cube-solving program called Optimal Cube Solver..." Nice job.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAwesome.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisamzing!!! very much!!! i admire that boy...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is realy amazing.. That boy, he is still at his young age. However, he is very intelligent.. Two thumbs up!!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisyou're right!! awesome!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswhat a story... an example of being great today and the future possibilities that will open up in the future for both... an inspiration to many...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis,on top of the story about the girl who diagnosed her own illness (with the help of her AP Bio prof.). Kids are clever if we let them be.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt looks like the kid has good gentics. That is very impressive. Good for him.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.beckthomas.com
This is the same system my son and his FIRST LEGO League teammates are using in this year's competition. They are programming it, with the help of their National Instruments and IBM mentors, to solve the missions on a challenge mat. Very inspiring!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHi,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am 11 years old and from India. Well Heads Up For That Great Boy. Well I am younger to him as he is I think 13 this year.
Well I am too intelligent. I am learning C, though I am not a complete master in it. I am also learning HTML and Java planning to build a revenue earning website ( My sources will be Ad-sense and Affiliate Marketing). My main aim to build my site is so that I can earn enough to buy components for my future projects like buying NXT.
If anyone wants to contact me here is my email:
khatoo_methoo@hotmail.com
I love comments ( especially on me ) to me but since I am not going to visit this site again I am requesting you all to mail me. PLEASE