# [IDEA] Mass production of solving machine



## Filipe Teixeira (Nov 4, 2018)

If you google "Rubik's cube solver robot" you'll find a lot of results.

But it seems that the main goal of rubik's cube solvers are to be the fastest, not to really automate scrambling and to help learning.

If someone has the intiative to mass produce a rubik's cube solver robot, there would be a lot of benefits. For example, helping people to learn to solve the cube by themselves.

Solving the cube when you mess up is a great improvement on learning. You can train parts of the method, put the cube in the machine and it would solve it or provide another fully scrambled cube or another case (OLL / PLL / ZBLL / F2L whathever)

Also, the machine could save the state of the cube, as it would have sensors to capture the state of the cube.

So you could apply a pattern to it in seconds or scramble it for championships...

And so many other benefits, I know you can think of many of it and others resources the machine could have.

Let me know what you think, and this can be real in the future.


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## abunickabhi (Nov 8, 2018)

Yo, I am already on it,

https://github.com/abunickabhi/WCA_allpuzzle_scrambler


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## abunickabhi (Nov 8, 2018)

There is a future in it, it will help in very big comps, where there is a dearth of volunteers and scramblers.


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## WombatWarrior17 (Nov 8, 2018)

Filipe Teixeira said:


> If you google "Rubik's cube solver robot" you'll find a lot of results.
> 
> But it seems that the main goal of rubik's cube solvers are to be the fastest, not to really automate scrambling and to help learning.
> 
> ...


I think this could be a big help in comps, but not so much in learning how to solve. The best way to learn how to do something is to do it, but if you have a robot solving it for you when you mess up, then you remove the actual problem solving portion of learning how to solve.



Filipe Teixeira said:


> You can train parts of the method, put the cube in the machine and it would solve it or provide another fully scrambled cube or another case (OLL / PLL / ZBLL / F2L whathever)


https://tao-yu.github.io/Alg-Trainer/


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## xyzzy (Nov 8, 2018)

WombatWarrior17 said:


> I think this could be a big help in comps, but not so much in learning how to solve. The best way to learn how to do something is to do it, but if you have a robot solving it for you when you mess up, then you remove the actual problem solving portion of learning how to solve.


I don't think this is right. When I mess up, I want to know what I can do better, but the whole thing about messing up is that the puzzle is no longer in a state where you can do the "right" thing. If every move can be tracked and then replayed, this could potentially be very useful.


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## WombatWarrior17 (Nov 8, 2018)

xyzzy said:


> I don't think this is right. When I mess up, I want to know what I can do better, but the whole thing about messing up is that the puzzle is no longer in a state where you can do the "right" thing. If every move can be tracked and then replayed, this could potentially be very useful.


I can see that, but in my experience, I've figured out a lot from fixing things myself. Yeah, having something to trace the moves back can help, but I would like to know exactly how it's supposed to track your moves. And if that's what you want, why not just use a smart cube? This is an interesting topic, so I'm just curious.


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## Thom S. (Nov 8, 2018)

Many of the solving machines listet on the Wiki were made with Lego Mindstorm, so I'd suggest 
Constructing a machine using Lego and making a template available online would do the Job?


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## xyzzy (Nov 8, 2018)

WombatWarrior17 said:


> And if that's what you want, why not just use a smart cube?


I keep forgetting the Giiker is a thing, lol.


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## mark49152 (Nov 8, 2018)

abunickabhi said:


> Yo, I am already on it,
> 
> https://github.com/abunickabhi/WCA_allpuzzle_scrambler


Have you built anything yet, or written any code? The project is empty.


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## Filipe Teixeira (Nov 9, 2018)

WombatWarrior17 said:


> I think this could be a big help in comps, but not so much in learning how to solve. The best way to learn how to do something is to do it, but if you have a robot solving it for you when you mess up, then you remove the actual problem solving portion of learning how to solve.
> 
> 
> https://tao-yu.github.io/Alg-Trainer/



I think it can save time when learning algs. If you mess up, simply put the cube in the machine and it will provide a setup for the case. No wasting time

It can help when people are beggining

Or even, imagine you have two cubes and you're learning a zbll subset. One hour of drilling would be more productive because you're just solving, not scrambling the cube. Just finish one cube and put it on the machine, get the other and continue



Thom S. said:


> Many of the solving machines listet on the Wiki were made with Lego Mindstorm, so I'd suggest
> Constructing a machine using Lego and making a template available online would do the Job?



Thats the same of saying, why you're buying a refrigerator if you can build one with lego, you just have to download the blueprints, buy the lego and build it.


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## WombatWarrior17 (Nov 9, 2018)

Filipe Teixeira said:


> Thats the same of saying, why you're buying a refrigerator if you can build one with lego, you just have to download the blueprints, buy the lego and build it.


That's not the same at all... All you need to do to have a solver is Lego and code. A refrigerator is a lot more complicated, and can't be built from just Lego.


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## Thom S. (Nov 9, 2018)

Filipe Teixeira said:


> Thats the same of saying, why you're buying a refrigerator if you can build one with lego, you just have to download the blueprints, buy the lego and build it.



This comparisson is wrong, even to make your point clear. A refrigerator is easily available to buy. A cube solving Robot is not. My post already builds up to that fact(also, wouldn't having your fridge selfmade be the coolest thing ever?). 
If you want/need to buy a refrigerator but they aren't yet mass produced would you help developing it and go with the DIY alternative to at least have one or just wait desperately until someone mass produces it for you? 
Until a factory(or the like) decides to put in the resources for a real robot that's commercially available for an affordable prize, such a low-difficulty-alternative is good enough for most(if not all) potential cube solving machine buyers/future owners


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## dwalton76 (Nov 20, 2018)

Thom S. said:


> Many of the solving machines listet on the Wiki were made with Lego Mindstorm, so I'd suggest
> Constructing a machine using Lego and making a template available online would do the Job?



I built this, it can solve 2x2x2 up to 6x6x6:
https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-12712/dwalton76/cranecuber/

It would be an easy change to feed it a sequence of steps to apply to a solved cube to scramble it a specific way.


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## Thom S. (Nov 20, 2018)

dwalton76 said:


> I built this, it can solve 2x2x2 up to 6x6x6:
> https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-12712/dwalton76/cranecuber/
> 
> It would be an easy change to feed it a sequence of steps to apply to a solved cube to scramble it a specific way.



I actually follow your Thread.
How long would this machine need for a full scramble of the different sizes?


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## dwalton76 (Nov 20, 2018)

It takes about 4s per move so for say a 5x5x5 if you want to do 70 moves to scramble you are looking at about 5 minutes.

I have never been to a cube solving competition...how many cubes do volunteers end up scrambling? I take it they are given a set of moves to apply to scramble a cube a specific way?


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