In 2025, a team of undergraduate engineering students from Purdue University achieved a new world record for the fastest time to solve a Rubik's Cube by a robot. Their creation, named Purdubik's Cube, achieved an astonishing 0.103 seconds, a record officially recognized by Guinness World Records.
Purdubik's Cube combines innovations such as a redesigned cube, a machine vision system for color recognition, and custom algorithms optimized for swift execution. These algorithms efficiently calculate the rotations needed to solve the cube, while optimized acceleration and deceleration enable precise, sub-millisecond control.
The robot was first presented at a student design competition in December 2024 and refined by the team, which includes Junpei Ota, Aden Hurd, Matthew Patrohay, and Alex Berta. The previous record was 0.305 seconds, set by Mitsubishi Electric in May 2024. In comparison, the human record is 3.05 seconds, achieved by Xuanyi Geng in April 2025. This showcases the stark difference in processing speed and motor control between machines and human cognition and dexterity.