Brothers smash record that stood for over a decade with amazing puzzle cube-solving robot
A pair of brothers with a passion for robotics and computing combined their skills to break a record that had stood for more than a decade.
Matthew and Thomas Pidden (both UK) designed and built a robot that solved a puzzle cube in just 45.30 seconds.
How long would it take you?
Demonstrating their miraculous machine at the University of Bristol on 12 May 2025, they smashed the record for fastest robot to solve a 4x4x4 puzzle cube.
They absolutely obliterated the previous record of 1 min 18.68 seconds that was set over 10 years ago in 2014.
Matthew told us: “I decided to break the record as part of my undergraduate final project. I have always enjoyed Rubik’s Cubes as a child and computer science. Combining the two felt like a natural progression and a great project.”
The robot was very much a joint effort between the brothers. While Matthew used his skills in maths, computer science and robotics to design the robot and programme it, among other things, Thomas used his know-how to design many of the 3D parts used in the final product.
In a video of the brothers’ attempt, the cube is seen in the middle of the machine, with four robotic arms surrounding it.
The arms take turns to swoop in and turn the sides of the cube at rapid speed until all the colours are lined up correctly.
The group of people who’ve gathered to watch break out in cheers and applause as the robot officially solves the cube in record time.
And it had been a tense build up to that moment.
The first two attempts had failed but the third set the record with a time of 55 seconds. But convinced it could go quicker, the brothers carried on.
Attempts four and five failed too, but the sixth gave them that final time – certainly one to be proud of.
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Explaining how it works, Matthew said: “The robot uses two cameras to scan the cube. Both cameras were blocked by physical sliding plastic shutters. These were removed by hand at the start of each record attempt.
“Using these shutters meant the cameras could not see any faces of the cube before the attempt. The cube was solved entirely by the robot and the software running on the laptop without any external networks.”
What will the brothers do for their next teamup?