Robot Grabs and Solves Rubik's Cube

RuBot II is an amazing robot that can easily pick up and solve the Rubik's cube puzzle game in a completely interactive (and talkative!) way. This is the second version of the RuBot; both were created by Pete Redmond, an avionics technician with the Irish Air Corps.

To start, the robot accepts a Rubik's cube from a (mere) human. The 'bot then grabs the cube and hoists it up to eye camera level, where its deft manipulators scan all sides of the cube. The robot can solve the Rubik's cube puzzle in remarkably short order, chatting all the while (see RuBot II video).

Rarely have I seen a robot that seems to enjoy its work as much as RuBot II.

In a short interview with Technovelgy.com, Redmond discussed himself and RuBot II:

Did you read science fiction at an early age?

Redmond: Yes, I have always loved science fiction and science fact. I have read a lot of Scifi as a kid and adult (although as a kid it was mostly comics such as 2000ad). I also watched a lot of scifi tv as a kid (I don't watch much TV these days). My favourite books from my younger days (in no particular order) are: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Bill the Galactic Hero, Star Wars, 2000AD & Judge Dredd, Dune and the Discworld series. The latest addition to my favourite bookshelf is the Gap series by Stephen Donaldson. As a kid, my favourite TV would have been Star Trek, Doctor Who, Space 1999, Battlestar Galactica, Lost in Space, The Six Million Dollar Man....

Redmond: The build for RuBot was mostly functional so didn't allow for influence. It just does what it needs to do. The head is a gladiator helmet I found on eBay so again. The music is from the movie Short Circuit and the arms kind of move a little like Johnny Five's. If the question was the other way around I would say RuBot is most like Johnny Five and that is why I chose to use that piece of music. I got the idea to use lights for the mouth from Doctor Who's Cybermen.

(This Science Fiction in the News story used with permission from Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction.)

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