The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Lego robot is inviting you to a Rubik’s Cube-solving challenge
Open day features student-built super-machine
Abertay University students have created a robot made out of Lego which can solve a Rubik’s Cube in under two minutes.
First and second year computing students in Dundee have made the Mindstorms machine and are now offering people the chance to face off against it.
The Lego device takes photographs of the Rubik’s Cube’s stickers before solving it as a human would by twisting the patterns into place.
Going head-to-head with the robot is one of a number of events being staged at Abertay on Saturday as the university welcomes potential students for its open day at the Bell Street campus.
Dr Ian Ferguson of Abertay’s division of cybersecurity said the invention was a great example of the artificial intelligence (AI) work at the university.
“The students pieced together a series of motors, sensors, gears and bricks to create the robot, including an ‘intelligent brick’,” he said.
“The sensors detect and identify the scrambled colours before the programme computes the fastest set of moves to restore the cube to its ‘solved’ state.”
Other events include the Death: The Quick, The Slow and The Painful in the new £3.5 million science labs, with visitors being asked to turn detective and work on cases.
Demonstrations will take place in the campus’s sports lab showcasing the science behind performance enhancing techniques used by athletes .
And in Abertay’s UK Centre for Excellence in Computer Games visitors will get a glimpse of life inside a professional studio, play games made by students and view artwork.
Another open day will be held on Wednesday November 8.