This Rubik's Cube Was Solved With Drone Motors

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[@3DprintedLife]

This is sickkk. Awesome video! Hope you get the views this deserves :D

[@AaedMusa]

I love your videos dude! Thanks!

[@RWBHere]

@@AaedMusa I cannot believe that, at the time of typing this, you have 107,000 subscribers but this video has only 58,000 views and an even smaller 4,000 likes. Subbed, viewed and liked.

[@niil047]

insanely underrated channel

[@EngineerKeita]

No cap

[@hajdaniel5778]

Fr

[@katunu6030]

Definitely. This channel needs more views.

[@Sgt_Church]

100%

[@mr.fluffypantz4150]

I bet you could modify the solver algorithm to allow opposite motors to turn at the same time. the right and left motors could turn in 4 different permutations at the same time, and every time they get used instead of a single motor turn, you chop off a move. Given that most algorithms allow for face turns and not just quarter turns, youd be adding a huge number of possible moves. I bet that would reduce the number of needed turns from 20 to ~16-18, but that's pure conjecture. If this doesn't work with the algorithm you used here, I'd love to see you use the original meet in the middle algorithm using these modified moves (even if just once since you'd have to wait on the solve for a long time) to show the fastest possible solve your machine could do.

[@AaedMusa]

Yep I've had my eye on an algorithm that someone made that does exactly that. I'll be exploring this in the future. With the standard kociemba algorithm there are few opportunities to pair moves in such a way that they can occur simultaneously.

[@Internetzspacezshipz]

This is the exact first thought I had when looking at this. I wasn’t sure if it was already implemented or not because the things spin so darn quick hahah.

[@mgancarzjr]

I came to this as well. Assuming you have an algorithm which scans your moves list and determines which adjacent moves can be "combined", the question is whether the controller can either a) send signals in parallel or b) get a second motor to start moving before the first one finishes. I don't know that the API for the motor controllers looks like or if they were programmed with raw high-low signaling. Ideally, you could just send both a message to turn to their respective rotations and simply ignore any kind of delay between the two signals.

[@davidtrott9469]

The other thought I had is that, all solves have Red on the top - since you don't have any middle squares you could have any color at the top - but it is kinda cheating because its only possible because you have removed the middle squares.

[@cheplays2482]

Absolutely love your channel. The way you challenge yourself with these builds is amazing to watch.

[@Internetzspacezshipz]

Tip for solving the colour problem; instead of trying to find the same colours every time, instead look at the relative values between them. That way you can identify which colour is which based simply on the difference rather than having to essentially “hardcode” a value. Also as other people have mentioned, switching into HSV colourspace could be really helpful too! Especially if you were using the relative colouring, since you could really just look at H and V. Eg, the red is a lower V than orange.

[@xanderlehnardt3673]

This is awesome! I remember a rubiks cube solver project that I saw for the old lego robot kits, it was really cool to be able to build it and have it solve a cube, even if it was really slow. You should think about trying to tackle making a robotic solver for larger cubes, like 4x4 or 5x5, would probably be orders of magnitude more difficult but I'm sure you would find a way.

[@TinyMaths]

Bro... you are a MADMAN! And I mean that as the highest form of compliment. Pretty impressive results. Honestly, I thought that, if someone knows how to solve the Rubik's cube, and they are halfway decent at maths, they could probably (after many headaches) come up with a very crude, really inefficient set of rules and logic for solving the cube, and pat themselves on the back; but then when you started talking about the colour recognition for the software, I was like, 'damn, one really does have to be a little bit crazy to take on a project like this' 😃

[@Leo-ir6ey]

Great video! The cost of 12 ODRIVE S1 is eye watering (am I seeing this right: $150 per controller??)! I am currently working on a project that uses FOC as well and have found the ST B-G431B-ESC1 ($20 per unit), which does not come with many features pre-programmed, but you can program the STM32G431CB, which is on the board, to do any controls you want. It unfortunately clocks the charge pump at the motor bridge switching frequency, which might cause some problems when operating at low speeds.

[@efivip93]

With FOC, you are using PWM, so the charge pump is not a problem at all. But you can't do 100% duty cycle though, which is only a problem if you want to have full torque at a very specific rotor position, and the rotor is stuck, but those cases are highly unlikely, like extremly unlikely to cause troubble...

[@joshdotson2190]

Wow, incredible job from start to finish! Have you considered using the HSV color space for your detection algorithm instead of RGB? It is far more common in computer vision and I think you would find it much easier to tune.

[@AaedMusa]

How fast can you solve a Rubik's Cube?

[@StormBurnX]

My current top time is less than one cube per year 😂

[@ljakeupl]

last time I tried and failed was probably when I was 10, so assuming the timer is still going, 24 years and still counting!

[@jorsanflo]

About 36 secs

[@damianomotta1809]

My record is 21 seconds i rarely go above 40. Anyway amazing project

[@darkgobelin4439]

my pb is 33 but I average on 36

[@ritooverma3344]

Really appreciate your efforts in making this project (and solving the challenges). Controlling the BLDC so precisely is great and combining the robotics with one of the most fascinating puzzles of all time is really inspiring. Congrats!

[@insanecomicdude]

If you programmed it to randomly scramble the cube, pause, and solve it over and over again, this would make for one hell of a cool art installation.

[@Mrbobinge]

OMG, not just remarkable ingenuity but the matching learned skills adapted to implement them in so many disciplines. Right down to screw lengths and friction reduction without WD40 or even the lady's moisturiser cream. Huge congratulations to a huge young brain.

[@m41nd3]

Leaving a comment mainly to incentivise the YT algorithm into promoting your work, your videos are amazing and inspiring and more people should see them

[@martyschrader]

Nice to know that there are enginerds who can fully geek out on this kinda solution exploration. You've got an embedded systems gig waiting for you upon graduation, my man. Parsec can't afford you, but somebody can.

[@timothysands5537]

Your videos are more interesting and detailed than James Burton. I am definitely subscribed for life my man 🎉. I know making these projects and assembling these videos takes a massive amount of time, so let me support you by sponsoring you a bit of cash, add a Thank$ button or something!

[@810mb3Rg]

Dope video. 👌 If color/light is still a problem, might be worth trying a different color space than RGB, such as HSV or LAB for image processing

[@conorstewart2214]

Rather than increasing infill for things like the shafts you should try increasing the wall thickness, the further the material is out from the centre of rotation or bending the more strength it will add. You should also consider using a different material for printing parts, PLA is good and works well for a lot of things but there are much stronger plastics you can get.

[@Dect.]

This video deserves way more views, keep it up!!

[@drpixelcat9408]

This is great. As someone who does robotics where vision can get messed up and lighting is out of control, I feel your pain. This has given me some good ideas on how to optimize our vision algorithms, so thank you.

[@thej3799]

Dude those speed controllers you use are so cool. i didn't know anything about them before i saw your videos. I'd only ever heard of stepping motors for these purposes. using brushless is amazing.

[@account-r3w]

I’m thinking of an algorithm which instead of solving cube in smallest amount of turns would give us best solution for using less motors. Meaning these turns would kinda connect together to be more smooth. + combining it with corner cutting and you could make it maybe even faster. Also you could turn opposite sides at the same time

[@esser50k]

awesome results! use of the DC motors was a good choice

[@enricodesign619]

wonderful project, i love it, Im recently begun learning to code Arduino and seeing a world of options open for me, and being a mechanical engineer i know i can build things, and now make them move, like you are doing here, very well done, love the challenge to yourself, that's how we all learn and move forward

[@AaedMusa]

100% agree!

[@StormBurnX]

Fantastic video, as always! I wonder, since you are using the o-drives, if you could use current sensing to determine when the cube has been jammed and immediately release the motors to reduce damage/strain on the cube.

[@AaedMusa]

For me, it's easier to shut everything off by hand than to program it to shut off. Once it's tuned properly jamming isn't an issue.

[@StormBurnX]

@@AaedMusa Fair! I wasn't sure at first but upon rewatching the video I think I misunderstood - I thought you were destroying multiple cubes and had to replace them when they jammed or loosened. Being able to shut it off by hand and fix the cube is definitely better!

[@arnemartt]

Amazing work, instant follow

[@chriskaprys]

Just found your channel today and I'm hooked. Incredible projects, and I love your delivery (you've a knack for choice moments of deadpan humour that make me literally laugh out loud). ps: next time for removing sharpie, you might try acetone (nail polish remover), especially in a scenario like this where you wouldn't be removing the paint/ink of the underlying material. And in certain situations you can use dry-erase marker over the permanent, then wipe away the dry-erase. Weird but true.👍

[@leezhenghan437]

Very similar style to "Stuff made here" I'm all for it though, more experimental engineering projects that are just plain cool & fun

[@julius6429]

Just for the algorithm. You definitely deserve it

[@girrrrrrr2]

the way I like to set heat insert nuts is to heat it with my soldering iron (i have the special tip which does help inserting accurately) and then ill push it like 3/4 of the way in, and then press it in the rest of the way with something flat. Comes out almost perfectly every time.

[@willvolovich]

Get that bag! Sponsored already🤯

[@kaestar5]

Yeah this one definitely deserves a like.. very nice!

[@docfarl]

You give us hope for the next generation, young man. Keep at it! Checking my subscription status right after this comment!

[@amogusenjoyer]

10:25 BAHAHAHA. The humour in this video was on point lmfao

[@efivip93]

Just a quick tip. Use inrunner motors with long, but small diameter rotor to keep the inertia as low as possible. Lubricate the cube as well with some low viscosity grease or oil to keep the friction down, needing for even less power from the motor, further reducing the innertia. That way you can increase the acceleration/deceleration. Nice build though. ;)

[@AaedMusa]

I already had these motors from a previous project. At high speeds, high friction is actually preferred not to mention that the cube can be tensioned even if friction is a problem. Thanks though!

[@mqb3gofjzkko7nzx38]

I really love the clicky sound it makes.

[@James68257]

This is awesome! Great work!

[@dashs2597]

Ur one of the best engineers on youtube. As an engineer myself I strive to make insane stuff like this!!

[@AaedMusa]

Thank you! Although there are many many engineers on here much better than I am.

[@jacksonvandenberghe9420]

amazing work as always

[@GreenStarbird]

This video and project are amazing. Good job!

[@lavericklavericklave]

i just came across your channel, you should be famous! great videos and projects! keep it up :)

[@chillchilli2671]

How do you not have 1M subs dude, this is inspirational content!

[@trystanfrease]

How are you not more popular. Your content is pretty close to Stuff Made Here. Keep up the good work! I strive to have the skills you have!

[@castelmichel8670]

Agreed 100%

[@mr.stratholm4999]

Here is a pro tip. If you want to remove sharpie ink all you need is a dry erase marker. Just write over the sharpie ink with the dry erase then simply wipe it clean with a paper towel immediately after and it'll come right off.

[@AaedMusa]

interesting! never tried that

[@mr.stratholm4999]

@@AaedMusa Works every time. That's how I used to have a whiteboard for house chores on a permanent grid. Make grid and column labels in sharpie and then write the cells in dry erase. That way the grid is permanent but if you need to redraw the grid the write over the sharpie ink with dry erase and wipe it off the whiteboard. Enjoy!

[@rohithmulampaka4769]

I subscribed your channel your effort is precious

[@SteeveBlack]

Instead of increasing infill to make the parts more resistant, consider increasing number of walls when printing.

[@MakeDataUseful]

Fantastic video, thanks for sharing!

[@holzwurm_hd7029]

How fast of a drone could you build with 6 of these motors (on top of and below) a crbon fiber body if you were to keep the Weight wayyyy wayyy down low?

[@AaedMusa]

No idea. I'm not really into aviation. I never intend to use these drone motors to actually make a drone lol.

[@terrestrialTerror]

10:23 Life hack, when you solve the cube, claim 20 moves ago everything was part of the scrambling step so you'll always stay within gods number.

[@bodeneinheit]

Great video!

[@swegfesh]

Quality video, quality content, quality personality. Baited me with the cube and hooked me with my love for engineering. Subscribed!

[@aamiddel8646]

Very interesting. Is there a need to test the position of the facets after every move? Just scan the initial positions and calculate the new positions. And maybe if you do the calculation during the move in a separate thread of the processor (if your processor has this capability) you gain some time.

[@AaedMusa]

It only scans the cube before a solve. When the motors start turning the cameras are not used.

[@donacento3291]

Thx for this awesome vid. I just have a technical question: Have you tried to convert the RGB values to HSV and to determent the color just by the hue value?

[@MukweLaif]

Wow, excellent video as always. I wish more people knew about this channel

[@turkotv6815]

Aaed cooked once again

[@BlondieSL]

First, I have to say, with all the crap going on in N. America and the world, it is SOOOO refreshing to see a young man with genius-level abilities.... AND a sense of humor!!! RARE! It was also energizing to see such motivation and passion in creating this device and getting it to work. I'm very VERY familiar with designing something, only to have the stupid PLA parts break. LOL I see this man becoming one of the best engineers on the planet. He may even become one of the best in robotics!!!

[@maikrolf9356]

if you dont want that your pc is crashing all the time. get a ECC REG board with compatible ECC REG memory... the issue that its crashing is you lose data between you cpu and your drive there is the memory. nowerdays you have also simple board that supper ecc memory and its not that expansive anymore

[@k4yd33yeah]

It would be cool to know how you scramble the cube each time. Great video dude!

[@AboutTheBuild]

Awesome project good job.

[@beratkoc3701]

This guy is cracked, i could not imagine tuning that

[@gmaxwell]

Sharpie and white being the same is likely due to an IR sensitive camera. In terms of your color determination, to automate your engineering: If you computed the average pixel values for the different color faces and then run a principle component analysis, the result will be a projection that maximally separates them. Simple sum of squares in that space will probably give good decisions. As far as simultaneous moves you could try building a peephole optimizer-- imagine you have a list of moves, you can grab a window of those moves and look in a database to find another set of moves with the same result which takes less time given your system dynamics (e.g. parallel moves). Then simply build a database by making a program that enumerates moves, checks the permutation they accomplish, and remembers the 'cheapest' alternative. Run the substitution over the moves list until it stops changing. Presumably this would be nowhere as good as a better algorithm but you don't even have to understand how a rubik's cube solver works to implement this, and it can't make anything worse assuming your definition of cheaper is correct.

[@nineoneone6651]

Bro deserves at least 500k subs, what a legend

[@JaisonBuilds]

Love your stuff bro 🔥

[@walkingpizza1796]

Vert well made video! thank you for sharing you process with us! really cool!

[@tamrobotics]

This is even better than the step motors version video. How did you NOT get into MIT?

[@Coolgamertag120]

Keep in mind, more walls>more infill when strengthening 3d prints. Kinda like how tube is almost as strong as bar.

[@AaedMusa]

100% infill > more walls

[@dieselphiend]

Field oriented control, and open source controllers are the best thing to happen to motion control.

[@AaedMusa]

Fax!

[@bborud]

Great work!

[@KI5QMT]

great Scott's youtube competition

[@abcqer555]

Your channel is awesome!

[@ohmundazolen7157]

You are the best, keep going my friend

[@mikethewhizz5085]

Alternate title: these specially made rubiks cube motors are now being used for drones

[@bkims]

I wonder if using a PTFE based dry lube spray would help with motor start/stop latency by reducing the required torque to rotate faces. Also its its a dry film so it wont create a huge mess when those motors are going to town XD.

[@teitgenengineering]

This is the perfect youtube video

[@conorstewart2214]

Drone ESCs can have braking too, it’s probably not as good as the ODrive braking but they can have it.

[@atbjko]

What is the tablet you are using to write on?

[@bronco7269]

Next time you need to remove sharpie marker, try isopropanol! (Rubbing alcohol)

[@pexoto5093]

My man is an engineering artist

[@BooBoo-ev4rh]

The sound when they click @15:14 sounds like a ringtone

[@JadenKirschner]

Great Videos. Keep it up man!

[@Keesvanrooij-o5h]

Wow, you really are a nerd.😊 I mean this in the best possible way. What stands out for me is the great production values of your videos. You could make it your proffesion just producing.

[@neetones]

Yo, you're a genius.

[@JakeHaugen]

Such a great channel. Instant sub! Amazing project. Would love a deeper discussion on the algorithm!

[@bartoszgaj7788]

Great project!

[@sammflynn6751]

Why on earth u have 32k subs , u deserve 1 Million subs at least

[@OZtwo]

very cool!

[@glenmiller1437]

Great project. Really well done and presented. Subscribed. Knowing nothing about that algorithm... if it's optimized for the lowest number of moves (?), that may not be speed optimal for your setup. You may see a speed increase by adding moves, if they can be done simultaneously (opposite sides of the cube)

[@AaedMusa]

This may be true with some solves, but I don’t have the knowledge to create a new algorithm to do what you propose. I basically just downloaded this algorithm and used it as is. For the most part, this algorithm is going to be pretty optimal. I’ll look into this more in the future.

[@MustyBucket]

Question: would it be possible to create a 3D printer that uses those drone motors? Would it make sense? Would it be faster?

[@AaedMusa]

These are still not as accurate as stepper motors so no, it wouldn’t make sense.

[@porterfielddynamics]

What iPad app is that? Also, one thing that could have helped with your motor shafts would be printing them horizontally. I’d imagine the shear strength would improve significantly.

[@AaedMusa]

OneNote

[@Komeuppance]

Is facet "face-et" or "fass-et"?

[@AaedMusa]

Spelled facet, but I’ve been told that I mispronounced it.

[@inrmh]

Really nice video

[@SeattleShelby]

Slap a big ole heatsink on that Teensy and crank it to one gigahertz!

[@BuilderInStyle]

Can the robot mix up the cube too?

[@AaedMusa]

yep, it's programmed to do random scrambles

[@MrCuriousYogi]

Heyy Great video as always! How do u arrange the Funds required For your projects. (Before youtube Earnings)

[@techinventor101]

This guy deserve a million subs 😢

[@bluescorpian]

You should have maybe used a different color format like hsv or lab.

[@lucasb.2410]

wow that's pretty fast ! os1 drive go brrr

[@professorxgaming2070]

Cool stuff

[@JustForFun-b2t]

can any one recommend channels like this please ?

[@dingydongy306]

In the end of the video you say it solved on average in 21 moves? how can that be when the "godnumber" of 20 mean the algorithm should make the solve in less than 21 moves?