Students shatter Guinness World Record for fastest puzzle cube-solving robot

Solving a Rubik’s Cube is a challenge for most people. For a team of students from Purdue University’s Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, it became an opportunity to redefine the limits of speed, precision and automation—and officially make history.

Meet Purdubik’s Cube—a high-speed robotic system that now holds the Guinness World Record for “Fastest robot to solve a puzzle cube,” clocking in at a jaw-dropping 0.103 seconds. That’s faster than the blink of an eye—and nearly three times faster than the previous official record of 0.305 seconds, set by Mitsubishi Electric engineers in Japan in May 2024.

The Purdue team, Junpei Ota, Aden Hurd, Matthew Patrohay, and Alex Berta, has not only shattered that record, but now has the official Guinness certification to prove it.

The story behind this record-breaking feat didn’t begin in a lab. It started with Purdue’s Cooperative Education Program (co-op), which brought Hurd, Ota, and Patrohay together.

“Our team came together because of the co-op program,” said Hurd. “It helped us build not only the friendships that led to this collaboration, but also the professional and technical skills we needed to actually pull it off.”

The students invested time, and in some cases, money earned during co-op rotations, into building the robot. Their real-world experiences also helped them secure corporate sponsorships to support the ambitious project.

For Patrohay, the motivation goes back even further.

“I always say that my inspiration was a previous world record holder,” he said. “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.”

Purdubik’s Cube was first unveiled at SPARK, Purdue ECE’s student design competition, where it took home first place in December 2024. The team continued refining the robot after the event, relentlessly pushing the limits of modern automation and high-speed computing.

The system uses machine vision for color recognition, custom solving algorithms optimized for execution time, and industrial-grade motion control hardware from Kollmorgen. Every move is executed with finely tuned motion profiles to maximize acceleration, deceleration and mechanical efficiency, resulting in precisely coordinated sub-millisecond control.

“From the days of the Apollo program, Purdue researchers and students have been designing control systems that enable groundbreaking new capabilities,” said Sundaram. “The Purdubik’s Cube team is a prime example of how Purdue is bringing algorithms, robotics, and control together to achieve great feats of engineering.”

The team also designed the experience to be interactive. Using a Bluetooth-enabled “Smart Cube,” users can scramble the puzzle in real time, and the robot mirrors every move—solving the cube instantly once the scramble is complete.

Beyond the record-breaking speed, the project represents a culmination of years of learning and collaboration.

“What I really love about it is that senior design allowed us to bring together everything we’ve learned,” said Patrohay. “From our freshman year on, you build skills—but this project showed how they all come together to create something meaningful.”

And that incredible speed? It defies comprehension.

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

Nak-seung Patrick Hyun, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, mentored the student team.

“This achievement isn’t just about breaking a record, it pushes the boundaries of what synthetic systems can do,” said Hyun. “It brings us closer to understanding ultra-fast coordinated control systems like those found in nature.”

Milind Kulkarni, Michael and Katherine Birck Head and Professor of Purdue ECE, says the project is a shining example of the school’s commitment to hands-on learning and technical excellence.

“Take brilliant students, give them the tools and opportunities, and they’ll blow your mind,” said Kulkarni. “Four undergraduate ECE students, in less than a year, crushed a record set by a world-class team at Mitsubishi. I always say we have the best ECE students in the country—and this proves it. I couldn’t be more proud.”

Whether it’s smashing records, demonstrating machine intelligence, or inspiring the next generation of engineers, Purdubik’s Cube is more than a fast robot; it’s a world-class symbol of innovation at Purdue.