In an impressive underdog tale, students at Purdue University have designed a record-breaking robot that solves the Rubik’s Cube, previously held by Mitsubishi, a massive Japanese corporation valued at nearly $80 billion.
This robot, named the Cube of Purdubik, accomplished the task in just 103 milliseconds—astonishingly quick. The former record was set by Mitsubishi engineers, who managed it in 0.305 seconds.
To put that in context, a human blink lasts about 200 to 300 milliseconds. So, this robot is quite a bit quicker. Human reaction times hover around 200 milliseconds, as noted in a video produced by Purdue. Essentially, they solved it so fast that it happened before you could even register it.
The team behind Purdubik consists of students from the Elmore Family School of Electrical Engineering at the university.
The robot was first introduced during university competitions back in December 2024, and after securing first place, the team has worked on refining their creation.
The Purdubik team, including Patrohay, Junpei Ota, Aden Hurd, and Alex Berta, has officially earned Guinness certification for their achievement.
“We hold the record for the fastest machine to solve a Rubik’s Cube, clocking in at 0.103 seconds. We can reliably solve it in under 0.305 seconds, which is the current human record,” they stated.
However, the biggest hurdle to achieving even greater speed seems to be the cubes themselves, which tend to fall apart under the force exerted during solving.
In a video demonstration, the audience can be seen pressing a glowing green button linked to the Purdubik cube, triggering a short sound before the puzzle is solved.
To achieve their incredible speed, the team had to create a custom internal core capable of enduring the immense force required to keep everything intact. In slow-motion footage, you can observe how the metal arms of the robot manipulate the pieces to complete the puzzle.
For a bit of perspective, Max Park set a human record in 2023 by solving the cube in 3.13 seconds, earning significant acclaim.
It’s worth mentioning, though, that the kind of speed demonstrated by Purdubik would be impossible for a human. Attempting to solve the cube at that pace could lead to serious physical injuries.
After all, the human nervous system takes about 0.2 seconds to relay signals, which feels slow compared to what Purdubik can achieve.
