This video documents Mark Rober's three-year journey to build a robot, Jigsaw, capable of solving jigsaw puzzles significantly faster than a human. The video explores the complexities of human puzzle-solving, contrasts them with the robot's design and challenges faced during development, and culminates in a competition between Jigsaw and a world-record-holding human puzzle solver.
Human puzzle solving is complex: Humans perform four intricate tasks when solving puzzles: picking up a piece, rotating it, moving it into position, and deciding where it goes. Human dexterity, brainpower, and subconscious processes are crucial for speed and accuracy.
Jigsaw's design: The robot uses a suction cup for picking up pieces, a high-precision motor for rotation, modified CNC router with servo motors for precise movement, and an edge-detection algorithm for piece placement.
Overcoming challenges: The video details the difficulties in programming Jigsaw to understand piece placement, initially relying on edge detection and splines to match pieces. Further refinements involved a "wiggle routine" and a z-height encoder for precise placement.
Robot vs. Human Competition: Jigsaw competed against Tammy McLeod, the Guinness World Record holder for fastest puzzle solving. Despite initial setbacks for Jigsaw, it ultimately completed a 1000-piece puzzle significantly faster than Tammy.
CrunchLabs HackPack: Mark promotes his CrunchLabs HackPack, a series of programmable robots designed for teenagers and adults to learn engineering skills.
