US students build robot that solves puzzle cubes faster than you can blink your eyes

The fastest robot to solve a puzzle cube world record may have just become unbeatable.

After more than a decade of fierce competition, a group of four US students have created a robot that can solve a 3x3x3 puzzle cube in 0.103 seconds - literally faster than you can blink.

The incredible invention was built by Matthew Patrohay, Junpei Ota, Aden Hurd, and Alex Berta, who are all students at Purdue University’s Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.

“We solve in 103 milliseconds,” Matthew told his university website. “A human blink takes about 200 to 300 milliseconds. So, before you even realize it’s moving, we’ve solved it.”

And that’s no joke. This amazing footage shows it really is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment.

And the slow-motion solve is so satisfying to watch.

Matthew, 23, said he was inspired by a previous record holder and wanted to make his own attempt at it.

After a few of his friends joined the effort, they were eventually able to beat the previous record by two tenths of a second.

He said: “I always say that my inspiration was a previous world record holder. Back in high school, I saw a video of MIT students solving the cube in 380 milliseconds. I thought, ‘That’s a really cool project. I’d love to try and beat it someday’. Now here I am at Purdue - proving we can go even faster.”

The official attempt was hosted at a lab at their university on 21 April.

Their robot, named Purdubik’s Cube, was born after the four students met through a co-op programme at their university.

It is designed to recognize colours and can come up with its own custom algorithms, optimized to execute the solve in lightning-fast time with its industrial-grade motion control hardware.

After putting a lot of time, effort, and their own money, into the project, they’re beyond thrilled to have earned the record.

Nak-seung Patrick Hyun, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, who mentored the team, said: “This achievement isn’t just about breaking a record, it pushes the boundaries of what synthetic systems can do.

“It brings us closer to understanding ultra-fast coordinated control systems like those found in nature.”

Evolution of the fastest robot to solve a puzzle cube:

• 2009 – 1 min 4 sec by Peter Redmond (Ireland)
• 2011 – 5.270 sec by Mike Dobson and David Gilday (UK)
• 2014 – 3.253 sec by Mike Dobson and David Gilday (UK)
• 2015 – 2.39 sec by Zackary Gromko (USA)
• 2016 – 0.9 sec by Jay Flatland and Paul Rose (USA)

• 2016 – 0.887 sec by Albert Beer (Germany)
• 2016 – 0.637 sec by Albert Beer (Germany)
• 2018 – 0.38 sec by Ben Katz and Jared Di Carlo (USA)
• 2024 – 0.305 sec by Component Production Engineering Center, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Japan)
• 2025 – 0.103 sec by Matthew Patrohay, Junpei Ota, Aden Hurd, and Alex Berta (USA)