The Lego Cubestormer 3 recently solved a Rubik's Cube in 3.253 seconds. This robot used a Samsung Galaxy S4 as its brain, so this bodes well for the future of enterprise mobility.
I have long been fascinated by Lego robotics, and my four-year-old son and I have spent the occasional rainy day looking at online videos of everything from soccer-playing robots to a “pancake printer,” all assembled with Lego components and often controlled by a smartphone. Search this category, and you will also find robots designed to solve the ubiquitous Rubik’s Cube. Recently one of these robots, the Cubestormer 3, set a new record for solving the puzzle in a mere 3.253 seconds. Aside from a fascinating, albeit rather short video, what can Cubestormer tell us about the future of enterprise mobility?
The Android brain
Aside from the amazing Lego craftsmanship behind these types of robots, I’m amazed that their “central nervous systems” are often commodity smartphones. In the case of Cubestormer 3, a Samsung Galaxy S4 provides the robot with vision and processing. When you consider the Rubik’s Cube, it’s a fairly interesting computing problem that has many parallels to industrial automation. There is a set of defined rules on how a solution can be implemented (the various ways to turn the puzzle), a clear end-state (all sides have the same color), and a varying series of steps that get from the starting state to the end state. Furthermore, interpreting the starting state of the problem (how the cube looks at the start) requires optical observation. Like an assembly line robot that performs a precise series of tasks quickly, Cubestormer is optimized to manipulate a Rubik’s Cube; however, it generally starts with a cube in an unknown state, and must first analyze its environment and determine the fastest way to reach the optimized end state.
It’s fairly easy to see how this same series of steps applies to anything from controlling an automated milling machine, to tracking vehicles entering and existing a facility, to providing access control to a building.
Smartphones might seem more at home posting tweets and sending email, but they’re actually quite effective in what amounts to low cost, highly capable industrial “brain.” The smartphone possesses all the hardware and computing power needed for fairly complex problems, combining the ability to capture and process visual information, the computing power to determine a solution, and the programmability and interfaces to control a machine that can execute the solution, all while visually confirming “quality control.”
The consumerization of industrial controls?
These functions are certainly not new in industrial controls and robotics, but the fact that they’re available in a tiny commodity device that can be acquired for a laughably low comparative price creates amazing possibilities for industrial automation. Just as “consumerization” has changed the face of corporate IT, the technologies and techniques that built Cubestormer may change the face of industrial automation. Rather than controlling a robot designed to manipulate a child’s toy, why not a fleet of semi-autonomous forklifts trolling your warehouse? This technology exists already, but is based on expensive proprietary hardware. Aside from a specialized interface to control the vehicle itself, the average smartphone brings processing, connectivity, and image processing to the party at a fraction of the cost compared to proprietary control solutions.
Getting IT into the act
Many people in the areas where smartphone-driven industrial automation could help the most are unaware of the capabilities presented by these technologies. Even if aware, they may not understand the capabilities, development tools, and possibilities presented by smart mobile devices in this emerging space. With the cost of entry so low, it may be worth establishing a “skunkworks” collaboration between IT and traditional consumers of industrial automation. Some creative thinking and low-cost materials might solve anything from an access management system to automated quality controls. Even sharing IT’s thoughts on the state of the industry can help elevate IT from technology brokers to forward-thinking strategists, a position that will help boost the value of any IT group.
Patrick Gray works for a global Fortune 500 consulting and IT services company, and is the author of Breakthrough IT: Supercharging Organizational Value through Technology, as well as the companion e-book The Breakthrough CIO's Companion
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