My Puzzle Robot is 200x Faster Than a Human

Summary

The video script introduces 'Jigsaw,' a robot designed to excel at solving jigsaw puzzles with remarkable speed and precision. After three years of development, Jigsaw is claimed to be 200 times faster than the world's fastest human competitor. The script details the engineering feats and challenges in creating Jigsaw, from its dexterous gripper to its advanced pattern recognition. It also features a friendly competition between Jigsaw and human puzzlers, showcasing the robot's capabilities and the ingenuity of its creators.

Takeaways

• 🧩 Jigsaw is a robot designed to excel at assembling jigsaw puzzles with remarkable speed, potentially 200 times faster than the fastest human.
• 🤖 The development of Jigsaw took three years and involved overcoming complex challenges related to dexterity, precision, and pattern recognition.
• 👐 Humans possess an innate ability to solve puzzles through a combination of hand dexterity, pattern recognition, and spatial reasoning, which Jigsaw had to replicate mechanically.
• 🔧 Jigsaw uses a specialized suction cup to pick up puzzle pieces and a high-precision motor for accurate rotation and placement.
• 🔬 The robot's pattern recognition is based on analyzing the edges of puzzle pieces rather than the images on them, simplifying the process.
• 📱 Jigsaw's 'eyes' are essentially a smartphone camera that captures images of the puzzle pieces for edge analysis.
• 🔄 The robot employs a process of elimination and spline matching to find where each puzzle piece fits within the overall picture.
• 🔍 Jigsaw's algorithm can solve a 1000-piece puzzle in under a minute, demonstrating its advanced computational capabilities.
• 🛠️ The robot was upgraded with a 'wiggle' routine and a z-height encoder to mimic human touch and make fine adjustments when placing pieces.
• 🏆 Jigsaw competed against Tammy McLeod, a world-record-holding human jigsaw puzzler, showcasing a face-off between human and machine.
• 🎓 The video also promoted the CrunchLabs Hack Pack, a subscription service offering programmable robots and engineering skill development for enthusiasts.

Q & A

What is the primary function of Jigsaw, the robot featured in the script?

Jigsaw is a robot specifically designed to solve jigsaw puzzles with high precision and speed, potentially faster than the fastest human jigsaw puzzler in the world.

How long did it take to develop Jigsaw to the point where it could compete with human jigsaw puzzlers?

It took three years of development to reach the stage where Jigsaw could be tested against human competitors.

What are the four tasks that humans perform when solving a jigsaw puzzle, as mentioned in the script?

The four tasks are picking up a piece, rotating it to the correct orientation, moving the piece into position, and deciding where the piece should go based on pattern recognition and spatial reasoning.

How do humans' hands contribute to their ability to solve puzzles efficiently?

Human hands are flexible, strong, and precise, with 27 bones and 34 muscles, as well as a high concentration of nerves in the fingertips for sensing pressure, textures, and temperature. The opposable thumb also aids in holding tools and manipulating objects.

What evolutionary advantage does the human brain provide that makes us excel at tasks like puzzle solving?

The human brain, which makes up 2% of body weight but consumes 20% of daily energy, allows for tool use, planning, problem-solving, language, and large-scale cooperation, giving humans a survival advantage and making us excellent at tasks like jigsaw puzzles.

How does Jigsaw's suction cup differ from a human hand in picking up puzzle pieces?

Jigsaw uses a tiny, specialized suction cup to pick up puzzle pieces, controlled by a solenoid connected to a vacuum pump, allowing it to pick up and release pieces with precision, unlike the complex structure and dexterity of a human hand.

What type of motor is attached to Jigsaw's suction cup for precise rotation of puzzle pieces?

Jigsaw's suction cup is attached to a donut motor that is precise to 0.005 degrees, allowing for incredibly fine adjustments when rotating puzzle pieces.

How did the creators of Jigsaw address the challenge of moving puzzle pieces with precision?

They modified an avid CNC router with ClearPath industrial servo motors, which are accurate to .0005 inches, enabling Jigsaw to place puzzle pieces with high precision.

What approach did Jigsaw use to solve the puzzle placement challenge, given the complexity of pattern recognition and spatial reasoning?

Instead of trying to replicate the human brain's complex neural network, Jigsaw used a simpler approach by ignoring the printed images on the puzzle pieces and focusing on the edges, analyzing them with a cell phone camera and comparing edge splines to find matches.

What was the solution developed by Ryan from Zipline that became the backbone of Jigsaw's puzzle-solving capability?

Ryan developed a software solution that focused on edge analysis, using a cell phone camera to take pictures of the puzzle pieces, converting the edges into splines, and then comparing these splines to find matching puzzle pieces.

How did Jigsaw handle assembling a 1000-piece all-white puzzle, which is a significant increase in complexity from a 12-piece puzzle?

Jigsaw scaled up its capabilities by taking pictures of all pieces, analyzing them, and using a combination of software algorithms and precise physical manipulation to solve and assemble the 1000-piece puzzle, despite the increased complexity.

What was the final feature added to Jigsaw to address the issue of pieces not snapping into place during assembly?

A z height encoder on a spring-loaded linear slider was added to provide feedback on the placement of pieces, allowing Jigsaw to make tiny adjustments, similar to the human sense of touch, and ensure pieces snapped into place correctly.

What was the outcome of the competition between Jigsaw and the world's fastest human jigsaw puzzler, Tammy McLeod?

Jigsaw won the competition, solving a 1000-piece puzzle in four hours, demonstrating its superior speed and precision over the human competitor.

What are the four tips provided by Tammy McLeod for amateur jigsaw puzzlers to solve puzzles faster?

The tips are: 1) Dump out all pieces and turn them over for a full view, 2) Don't always start with edge pieces, especially if there's a distinct pattern around the edge, 3) Organize pieces into piles by color, texture, or pattern to reduce the search space, and 4) For pieces that look the same, sort by shape based on the number of ins and outs and orient them the same way.

What is the CrunchLabs Hack Pack, and how does it relate to the theme of the script?

The CrunchLabs Hack Pack is a series of fun, programmable robots delivered to subscribers, designed to teach engineering skills and encourage creativity in building and programming. It relates to the script's theme of engineering and problem-solving, as demonstrated by Jigsaw's creation and competition.

Outlines

00:00

🤖 Introduction to Jigsaw: The Ultimate Puzzle-Solving Robot

The script introduces 'Jigsaw,' a specialized robot designed to excel at solving jigsaw puzzles at an unprecedented speed, potentially 200 times faster than the world's fastest human. The development took three years and involved creating a robot capable of performing four complex tasks involved in jigsaw puzzling: picking up pieces, rotating them, positioning them, and recognizing where they fit. The human hand's dexterity and the brain's pattern recognition and spatial reasoning are highlighted as remarkable attributes that the robot must emulate. The robot uses a suction cup for picking up pieces, a precision motor for rotation, and advanced servo motors for positioning. The challenge of replicating the human brain's subconscious processes for puzzle-solving is discussed, along with the introduction of a new character, Shane from 'Stuff Made Here,' who has also developed a puzzle-solving machine.

05:00

🔧 Engineering Mastery and the Development of Jigsaw's Puzzle-Solving Algorithm

The script details the journey of refining Jigsaw's capabilities, emphasizing the expertise of Shane, who is described as a well-rounded engineer. It outlines the process of simplifying the puzzle-solving algorithm by focusing on the edges rather than the patterns, which is a more manageable problem for a robot. The approach involves taking pictures of each puzzle piece, converting their edges into mathematical splines, and matching them based on minimal overlap. The script also describes the iterative process of solving the puzzle, which includes starting with corner pieces and backtracking when dead ends are encountered. The challenge of scaling the solution to a 1000-piece puzzle is addressed, along with the technical difficulties faced and the eventual success of Jigsaw's algorithm in solving the puzzle in under a minute.

10:02

🔧 Enhancing Jigsaw with Human-like Feedback and Final Assembly

The script discusses the final stages of Jigsaw's development, focusing on the addition of a z height encoder to mimic the human sense of touch and fine-tune the placement of puzzle pieces. It describes the 'wiggle routine' that Jigsaw uses to make minor adjustments to piece placement until they fit perfectly. The script also recounts the process of assembling a 1000-piece puzzle, highlighting the technical challenges and the iterative improvements made to Jigsaw's hardware and software. The successful completion of the puzzle by Jigsaw, despite initial setbacks, is celebrated, and the script concludes with the anticipation of a human versus robot jigsaw puzzle competition.

15:02

🧩 The Human-Robot Jigsaw Puzzle Showdown

The script sets the stage for a competition between Jigsaw and renowned human jigsaw puzzler Tammy McLeod, who also holds a Guinness World Record. It includes a preliminary face-off with actress Kristen Bell and a 30-piece puzzle, showcasing Tammy's speed and skill. The main event involves a 500-piece puzzle, and the script describes the strategies used by both Tammy and Jigsaw, including Tammy's use of the box image and Jigsaw's systematic approach. The script also provides insights into Tammy's puzzle-solving techniques and highlights the camaraderie and humor of the competition.

20:02

🏆 Jigsaw's Victory and the Introduction of the CrunchLabs Hack Pack

The script concludes with Jigsaw's victory over Tammy in the jigsaw puzzle challenge, acknowledging the robot's superior capabilities in this domain. It then shifts focus to the CrunchLabs Hack Pack, a subscription service offering a series of programmable robots designed for teenagers and adults. The script promotes the educational value of the Hack Pack, which teaches engineering skills and allows for customization and creativity. It also mentions a special offer for new subscribers and the potential prize of a platinum diploma in each box, which could cover college tuition.

Keywords

💡Jigsaw Puzzle

A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of numerous small, often oddly shaped, interlocking and tessellating pieces. Each piece has a small part of a picture on it, and when combined, they form a complete picture. In the video, the theme revolves around a robot named Jigsaw that is designed to solve jigsaw puzzles with exceptional speed and precision, highlighting the complexity of the task for both humans and machines.

💡Robotics

Robotics is the branch of technology, engineering, and science that deals with the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The video script discusses the development of Jigsaw, a specialized robot, emphasizing the intricate process of creating a machine capable of performing a task—solving jigsaw puzzles—that is typically a human domain.

💡Pattern Recognition

Pattern recognition is the ability to identify and classify patterns in data, which is a fundamental aspect of machine learning and artificial intelligence. In the context of the video, pattern recognition is crucial for the robot Jigsaw to identify where puzzle pieces fit together, a task that humans perform subconsciously but is challenging for a robot to achieve through computational means.

💡Spatial Reasoning

Spatial reasoning is the cognitive process of understanding and manipulating the spatial relationships and orientations between objects. The video describes how humans use spatial reasoning to determine where puzzle pieces should be positioned within a jigsaw puzzle, a cognitive task that the robot Jigsaw must replicate algorithmically.

💡Suction Cup

A suction cup is a device that can adhere to smooth surfaces by creating a partial vacuum between the cup and the surface. In the script, a tiny specialized suction cup is used as part of Jigsaw's design to pick up and manipulate puzzle pieces, illustrating the need for innovative solutions to mimic human capabilities like opposable thumbs.

💡Donut Motor

A donut motor is a type of motor that is often used in precision applications due to its compact and robust design. The video mentions a finely tuned donut motor that allows Jigsaw to rotate puzzle pieces with incredible precision, demonstrating the level of accuracy required for the robot to compete with human puzzle solvers.

💡CNC Router

A CNC (Computer Numerical Control) router is a machine used in various manufacturing processes, capable of precise cutting, carving, and routing. The script describes how a CNC router was modified for Jigsaw to accurately place puzzle pieces, highlighting the use of advanced machinery in creating the robot's capabilities.

💡Servo Motors

Servo motors are a type of motor that includes a feedback system for precise control of position, velocity, and acceleration. The video script refers to ClearPath industrial servo motors used in Jigsaw's design, which enable the robot to place puzzle pieces with high accuracy, showcasing the importance of precise motor control in robotics.

💡Algorithm

An algorithm is a set of rules or steps used to solve a problem or perform a computation. The video describes how an algorithm was developed for Jigsaw to solve puzzles, ignoring the printed images and focusing on the edges of the pieces, which simplifies the complex task of pattern matching for the robot.

💡Feedback Loop

A feedback loop is a process that involves taking the output of a system and using it as input to adjust the system's behavior. In the video, the human ability to make fine adjustments when assembling puzzles is likened to a feedback loop, and Jigsaw uses a similar mechanism with a z height encoder to ensure pieces are correctly placed.

💡Guinness World Record

The Guinness World Record represents the highest or lowest levels of achievement within a particular field, verified by the Guinness World Records organization. The script mentions Tammy McLeod, who holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest puzzle solved by a human, providing a benchmark for Jigsaw's performance in the robot versus human puzzle-solving challenge.

Highlights

Introduction of Jigsaw, a robot designed to solve jigsaw puzzles at an unprecedented speed.

Jigsaw's potential to be 200 times faster than the fastest human puzzler, based on initial tests.

The human hand's dexterity and precision in picking up and manipulating puzzle pieces.

The evolutionary advantage of opposable thumbs in tool manipulation and puzzle solving.

The complexity of human visual perception and cognitive processes in solving puzzles.

The development of Jigsaw's specialized suction cup to mimic human hand functions.

Precision of Jigsaw's donut motor to an accuracy of 0.005 degrees for piece rotation.

Use of ClearPath industrial servo motors for accurate placement of puzzle pieces.

The challenge of programming Jigsaw to recognize and place puzzle pieces accurately.

Innovative approach to ignore puzzle图案, focusing on edge analysis for solving.

The use of a smartphone camera as Jigsaw's 'eyes' for capturing puzzle piece images.

Algorithm development for matching puzzle piece edges using splines and overlap area calculation.

Jigsaw's ability to backtrack and find alternative solutions when encountering dead ends.

The implementation of a z height encoder for fine-tuning piece placement like human touch.

Jigsaw's successful completion of a 1000-piece puzzle, showcasing its advanced capabilities.

The human-robot jigsaw puzzle competition, highlighting the speed and accuracy of Jigsaw.

Tammy McLeod, a world-record holder in jigsaw puzzles, facing off against Jigsaw.

Jigsaw's victory over a human champion, signifying a milestone in robotic puzzle-solving.

Introduction of the CrunchLabs Hack Pack, an educational tool for building and programming robots.

Details on the features and benefits of the CrunchLabs Hack Pack for makers and learners.

Transcripts

This is jigsaw.

He's a friendly little robot that's really, really good at only one thing:

Putting together any jigsaw puzzle, no matter how complicated.

Really, really fast.

It's taken us three years to get to this point,

but according to our initial tests, we have hopes he might be 200 times

faster than the fastest competitive jigsaw puzzler in the world.

So today, we're going to walk through what it took

to get ready for the ultimate robot versus human face off.

And along the way, we may just discover some tricks

you might find helpful as a mere human jigsaw puzzler yourself.

But before we unpack how jigsaw does what he does

I first want to give us humans some well-deserved credit

because while this seems pretty straightforward of me

to be able to pick up and arrange

these 12 pieces of a puzzle, I'm actually doing four very complicated tasks.

The first is just picking up a piece.

Have you ever stopped to think just how amazing our hands are?

Hiding beneath that skin are 27 bones and 34 muscles,

which makes them flexible and strong, but they're also incredibly precise and dexterous

thanks to the high concentration of nerves in our fingertips

for sensing pressure textures, and temperature.

We've also evolved to have opposable thumbs,

which makes it way easier to hold tools

and to manipulate and pick things up

than if it was just five fingers all side by side.

Step two is rotating the piece

to the correct orientation, which again is pretty straightforward

when you have all the abilities I just mentioned.

For step three,

we need to move the piece into position, and that requires our whole arm.

As I’ve mentioned before

all mammals have the same basic arm bone configuration

from a human to a bat, to a chicken to a turtle to a dolphin.

But when you include the hand, our configuration

is the most technically capable arm

of any living thing to have ever existed on this planet.

If you imagine a large cube in front of me, it's wild that us humans

can move this puzzle piece to any position and orientation within that cube.

That's really hard for a robot

or pretty much any other species to do for that matter.

For step four,

we have to decide where this piece should go

and for us humans, it's hard

it’s hard to explain how

but when we look at this, it just very quickly feels super obvious

this piece should go here.

What's actually happening, though, is our eyes communicate

visual perception to our brains, which then subconsciously synthesize

a complicated combination of pattern recognition, spatial reasoning,

visual memory, and executive function, and as a result, in fractions of a second?

The answer just feels obvious.

And not to brag.

But this is once again where us humans are the undisputed champions.

Our complex brains are what make us special.

Physically, we're kind of unremarkable in the animal kingdom.

We're not faster than cheetahs or stronger than bears.

We can't swim as well as dolphins or fly like an eagle.

It's our brains that make up 2% of our body weight,

yet they consume 20% of our energy every day.

And that ratio is higher than any other living thing ever.

And it's the reason we're the ultimate apex predators

because it allows for the huge survival advantages that come from tool use planning,

problem solving, language, and large scale cooperation with other humans.

It's also what has possibly, up until this moment

in history, made us the best...

at jigsaw puzzles.

So if we wanted to make a robot that was as good

or better than us at puzzles, our daunting challenge

was to take the 200 million years

of evolution that enabled those four steps,

and figure out how to translate it into things

a robot can do

For number one, to pick up a piece

in lieu of an opposable thumb and 27 hand bones

we used a tiny, specialized suction cup

that's often used to manipulate small objects on assembly lines.

This solenoid here can cut off and then connect to this vacuum pump,

which means we could turn on the suction exactly when we want to pick it up,

and then turn it off

exactly when we want to let it go

For number two

we attached the suction cup grabber of jigsaw

to this very fine tuned donut motor.

That's precise to an incredible 0.005 degrees.

That means if you attached an infinitely sharp knife to the end of the motor,

it could slice your circular birthday cake into over 65,000 pieces.

For number three to move a piece around, we modified our avid CNC router

we're constantly using around here for our large builds

by upgrading the motors to ClearPath industrial servo motors.

These are the same motors we used on the Dominator.

Our autonomous Domino robot.

Once we did this, we saw it could

accurately place a puzzle piece down to .0005 inches

That's one tenth the width of a human hair,

which means, as you can see here,

jigsaw can take the lead out of a mechanical pencil

and move all around the table, and then come back and put the lead right back in.

So now that jigsaw could pick up

rotate, and move any piece with terrifying precision.

The only thing he lacked was step four, knowing exactly where to place the pieces.

And as you might guess, this was by far the hardest one to solve

because all the subconscious work performed by neural pathways in our brain

that handle pattern recognition and spatial reasoning, that makes finding

that makes finding the right piece feel so obvious to us

is a really, really hard problem to solve

using just computer logic and code

To make matters worse

just as we were really struggling to come up with a good solution to this problem,

the most devastating thing that can happen as a YouTuber actually happened.

My friend Shane from the YouTube channel Stuff Made Here

released a video about, you guessed it, a machine that solves jigsaw puzzles.

And what you should know about Shane is he's probably

the most technically capable engineer I know.

If there are like 15 categories that make you a good engineer,

my knowledge goes pretty deep in maybe four, and I'm a generalist in the rest

But then I have people like Ian and others on my team who help fill in the gaps.

Shane, however, is somehow an expert in all 15

which is why you should subscribe to his channel.

When I told him he beat me to the finish line,

he told me he personally wasn't satisfied with where he landed the project

and encouraged me to keep trying. So I persevered.

And that's when our fortunes improved, because while filming a video in Rwanda

covering the work done at Zipline, where they deliver life saving blood

using autonomous drones, I got to spend some time with Ryan,

their co-founder, who's responsible for all their complicated software algorithms.

And after hearing all of our challenges

by the time the plane landed on the way back home, he'd coded up a solution

that ended up being the backbone that unlocked everything for us.

Basically, instead of trying to compete with our brains

very complicated pattern-matching neural network

we took a much more simple approach

by completely ignoring what was printed on the puzzle

and just looked at the edges

so while painting it white

makes it more impressive and way harder to solve for us humans.

It would make no difference to jigsaw.

So to do this edge analysis, we first need a set of eyes.

but not those eyes.

Those are just decorative because it's no secret

I love a good pair of googly eyes.

And these were our most advanced set of googly eyes ever.

Because the googly is controlled by two servo motors

jigsaws real eyes

were just a cell phone camera.

The idea was to run a serpentine pattern over all the pieces

and take a picture of each one, and then isolate them against the background

then convert the edges of every piece into four splines.

So if we wanted to find a match, say for this edge,

we would just need to take that spline and then find the puzzle piece

that had a corresponding edge spline that matched up perfectly.

Because matching pieces share identical edges.

Now, even for a small, simple puzzle like this, that's over 200

edge comparisons that need to be made.

So the first step is just to look at the overall length of each spline

and disregard any edges that were significantly longer or shorter,

and that typically reduced the solution space by about 50%.

Then for the remaining candidates, we would overlay the splines

and then quantify the mismatch by calculating the area

between the two edge splines.

So two pieces that were obviously not a fit would have a lot of overlapping area,

whereas two pieces that were a perfect match

the overlap area would essentially be zero.

From there, we looked at all the possible spline matchups and ranked the pieces

as potential matches with each other from least overlap area to most.

Then jigsaw would start

with one of the four corner pieces and map out the potential solution space,

which you could picture visually like this.

So the correct solution

is the only one that finds a good fit for all 12 pieces of the puzzle.

But as you can see, there's lots of forks and dead ends.

And that's because sometimes it was really obvious what the matching piece was.

But sometimes there were 3 or 4 close contenders

because the edges are so similar, and our pictures weren't always perfect,

so jigsaw would always pick

what seemed like the best match for a set of two pieces.

But at some point the puzzle would only be halfway done

and there would be no more good candidates to match the edges

to continue solving the puzzle.

And that's a dead giveaway

he chose the wrong piece somewhere previously up the chain,

so he would work his way

back to the closest fork and then choose the next best option,

and he would keep doing this over and over

until he found a path that finally connected all 12 pieces

with essentially zero spline mismatches at every connection.

And then at that point,

because he took pictures of all the pieces,

he knows exactly where each of them is starting from over here.

And he can simply assemble the puzzle using the precision

he demonstrated back in steps one through three.

So it was working on a 12 piece puzzle, but now for the real challenge.

Could we scale that up to a 1000 piece, all-white puzzle?

Since our ultimate goal was to dominate the world's fastest human puzzle solver.

We figured maxing out the number of pieces would give the advantage

to the non-overwhelmable robot.

So after a couple more long weeks filled with plenty of late nights

working through all the challenges that come from

scaling up a simple prototype 100 times over...

we landed here.

It's 3 a.m.

after three years.

We're at this moment about to fully solve it for the first time.

What's our confidence level?

I'd say 100%.

Wow!

The code always works on the first try

And so with that very heavy dose of sarcasm,

jigsaw got to work starting first with taking all the pictures.

And that took about 1.5 hours.

And after we had the pictures, and we did the prep work on them I mentioned earlier

it was time for jigsaw to actually try and solve the 1000 piece puzzle.

And astoundingly, while running on just a simple laptop

the actual time to figure out the correct placement

of all 1000 pieces

was less than a minute.

And I love how you can actually see him

working his way around the puzzle from the top corner

solving, and then going back each time he hits a dead end

to try and find a different fork in the solution space, until he finds

the only combination that makes them all fit perfectly.

So at this point, all that was left for

jigsaw to do was get to work placing the pieces, since he now knew

where every single one needed to go

and things were looking really good.

And just as we made the mistake of having some kind of glimmer of hope,

a single piece didn't quite snap into place.

And then a bunch more followed right behind.

And upon troubleshooting, what we discovered was

there were a few very small sources of error

that tended to compound on each other.

The more the puzzle was assembled.

So, for example, there's always a little slop

between any two puzzle pieces, which adds up over a lot of pieces.

Or another source of error is the whole puzzle itself shifting slightly

when certain pieces were laid down.

And this led us the realized jigsaw was actually still missing

one final important feature us impressive humans possess

Because if you think about it,

when we assemble a puzzle

we first just approximately place the piece where it needs to go

and then we rely on those highly sensitive nerves in our fingertips

to form a feedback loop with the brain

to make really tiny adjustments until we feel the piece fall into place

and then a double tap is the customary move to make it official

But since jigsaw doesn't have nerves in his gripper, we approximated

that with the z height encoder on a spring-loaded linear slider

and that encoder is so accurate

if you slice a human hair lengthwise into 50 pieces,

jigsaw could feel that tiny hair slice if it was resting on top of the table.

So now if jigsaw went to place a piece

and he could feel it hadn't quite snapped into place

because it was resting too high,

he would employ a wiggle routine where it would just barely translate

the piece into various directions until he got the feedback from his finger

that the piece was fully set down

at which point he would give it the customary final tap

like any puzzle solver worth his salt.

And so, with Jigsaw's new hardware and software upgrades

he was ready for one more final attempt.

And I should mention, by the way, from a combined

hardware software perspective, this is by far the most challenging

build ever on my channel, and that includes

the auto Bullseye dartboard and the automatic Domino Robot Dominator.

So if you really want to appreciate

all the juicy details, including all of the source code,

you can find a link to the full write up in the video description.

You boys ready to try this again officially for the 48th time?

Better work this time.

What's the confidence levels at?

100%.

Have you learned nothing Ian?!

Hit the dang button

So jigsaw got to work and after taking pictures

of all the pieces, he once again actually solved the whole puzzle

in a mere 55 seconds

which meant it was time to put them all together.

And thanks to the wiggle routine

you got this jigsaw.

The first 20% was knocked out in less than an hour.

Okay, I guess we could sit back down

And that meant while jigsaw was doing all the hard work,

I just get to kick back and relax in a state of Zen

gazing at this polar gantry sand garden that you can build yourself.

Because unlike the CrunchLabs build box,

which is made for kids, we just launched HackPack, which is kind of similar

It's just more advanced and created specifically for teenagers and adults.

With HackPack, you get a series of really fun programable robots

delivered right to your door, where we build it together and learn,

step by step, the kinds of engineering skills

that go into making the builds on my channel.

They're all super fun and even useful, and they'll work right out of the box.

No programing required,

but since my goal is to get you to always level up your skills

with some simple code tweaks we walk you through,

you can level up the functionality of your robot, or get totally creative

with some hacks of your own.

So if you want to enhance or even just take the first step

of unlocking the really fun and rewarding hobby of making stuff,

just go to CrunchLabs.com, or use the link in the video description

where we're giving away one free box as an early subscriber special.

and back over with Jigsaw

Things were looking very promising for the world record attempt

of an off the shelf puzzle, completely solved and assembled by a robot

with no human intervention.

Some pieces would go right in

Uno

Wow

Some required a little bit of wiggle.

Oh, actually, yeah.

And some required a lot of wiggle

But in the end.

let’s go Jigsaw

C’mon last piece

Jigsaw always came through

Yes!!

Now feeling more confident in Jigsaw’s abilities

It was time for him to meet the greatest jigsaw puzzler the human race had to offer

What? Are you done?

Who, fun fact

also happens to be a national sudoku champion

Tammy McLeod

I’m the Human Benchmark according to my child

I first wanted her to face off

against the best jigsaw puzzler I personally know

my dear friend Kristen Bell

aka Anna, or Veronica mars, or Eleanor, or a bunch more

Kristen

ever since I told you I was making a puzzle robot, you've been talking so much trash.

A little bit of trash. Yeah.

The puzzle robot isn't here today.

So instead, I have a friend I want you to... challenge.

This is Tammy.

She holds the Guinness World Record for

the fastest puzzle

Ever solved by a human being.

Hi, Kristen.

We kick things off with a simple 30 piece puzzle.

And to be honest,

Three, two, one. Go!

Kristen started off pretty strong.

Where's the elephant?

Tammy, you don't talk while you're doing it?

I mean, I could trash talk, but-

Do it!

You're gonna lose Tammy.

And then you hit me back.

Wow, that was one minute and five seconds for a 30 piece puzzle.

I'm sweating so much

and that was a pretty decisive win.

But I wanted to see one more face off,

only this time with a 500 piece puzzle

and a huge advantage in Kristen's favor.

I think I'm going to help you on this one.

Okay?

And with Kristen's renewed confidence, the clock started

and out of the gate

Tammy was so confident in this 2-v-1 matchup.

She's just doing flipping?

Oh my god, that's crazy organized.

She saw no problem in helping our cause.

What is that little guy?

his tail

She’s right

SHE’S RIGHT

Mark, can I ask you a sincere question?

Is this the robot?

Admittedly, I did have an ulterior motive for this matchup

and that was espionage.

Tammy, I noticed you're using the box.

What!

Tammy, get real.

You have to look at the picture.

It’ll just distract me.

I look at the pictures.

I have good color acuity.

I have very bad shape memory.

So if you say had to go against an all white puzzle...

That would maybe be my Achilles heel.

And this was a very useful bit of information.

But she didn't stop there.

Because she also told me the four tips

she tells amateur jigsaw puzzlers to help them solve puzzles faster.

First off, dump out all the pieces

and turn them over so you can see them all at the same time.

For number two

most people start with the edge pieces,

and that's not a bad move, but it's not always the best.

For example, if there's a puzzle that has something

like a gold frame around the outside

you should set all the edge pieces aside

and then leave them till the end, where there's a lot

more information from the interior pieces to help with the border

For tip three

look for groupings that catch your eye and organize them into piles.

So for example, you could organize by colors, textures, or patterns.

But either way, you're trying to reduce the search space into smaller chunks

because scanning and pattern matching are different parts of the brain.

And this way you don't have to do them at the same time, which makes it easier.

And finally,

if you're down to a bunch of pieces that all look the same like a blue sky,

sort by shape based on how many ins and outs they have

and orient them all the same way.

This will leave you with six total piles

and will make it much easier to find the final matches.

And I needed to look no further than our current match up-

Oh no. I look away for one minute.

Don't look at Tammy's, Kristen

Things have gotten dire.

-to understand there must be some validity to these four steps.

I’m not seeing your hands move or your eyes look at the board

I’M PANICKING

I'm not trying to-

DONE!?

34 minutes and 2 seconds.

500 pieces.

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

Your next puzzle match will not be against mere humans.

And indeed, after setting things up at CrunchLabs, we were ready to go.

Tammy, I'd like to officially introduce you to jigsaw.

This is my upgrade from Kristen

And Jigsaw was in no mood for conversation as he got straight to work.

All right, then!

As Tammy entered the matchup of her life with the weight

of all humanity resting on her capable shoulders.

What's your strategy here?

The only shape I can make use of is the edge.

Okay, how are we doing, jigsaw?

not really sure what I'm supposed to do now...

But that’s when I remember I have a specialized skill set of my own

I might need to take measurements on your neck later.

I'm making you something.

That's why you don't have any pieces placed yet on your team.

Wow, Tammy

you're familiar with the saying “measure once, cut twice.”

No, that's not it.

And as if on cue,

My teammate, wrapped up his measuring.

There's a corner piece!

and began cutting.

did you have to make him so noisy?

Three pieces!

Four pieces!

Tammy, ignore me...

Saying five pieces!

It ain’t over till it's over.

You're still winning, Tammy. Don't let it get to your head.

And while I was tempted to count all 1000

Nine pieces!

I decided to take up woodworking instead.

Are you nervous, Tammy?

Even if I lost today, my family would still love me.

Jigsaw.

If he lost today, would you still love him?

No

My love is very conditional.

Having properly reminded jigsaw what was at stake.

Jigsaw has now officially taken the lead.

Jigsaw continued to make steady progress while Tammy...

Where’s that last edge?

Oh, you need one edge piece

faced the limits inherent in biology

I really want to actually help find this for you

That way I can say you needed my help.

Without the precise search capabilities...

I found it, I’m done with the edge!

Of a smart phone to laptop nervous system.

Click. I love that sound.

Is there any way I could get some water.

Jigsaw. Do you need a water break?

You notice we are missing a piece in the middle

that's on purpose

I was the ideas guy and jigsaw was the muscle.

Jigsaw. That's your next piece right there buddy.

I'm a team player.

The only thing is

he could be a bit of a control freak

So I opted to help Tammy instead.

Tammy, do you need this piece? Do you need this piece?

Do you need this piece? Do you need thi–

And so while jigsaw continued to widen the gap

I made myself useful by woodworking.

Solitairing

Finding Waldo.

Tammy right here!

Nah I’ll look later

and just generally reverting to the role of my youth

as the annoying youngest sibling.

I love doing puzzles

And after all that, Tammy had made a lot of progress-

Tammy, I have good news and bad news.

The bad news?

There's only eight pieces left

-but not enough.

The good news is I made you a scarf!

In fact, if you assume it takes one second per side

to try all the remaining combination of pieces she had left

working 12 hours a day, skipping weekends.

It would take her one and a half months to finish

which made this a good time

to throw in the towel.

Unless you're about to finish

I think I'm good.

Oh, this is a moment!

1000 pieces in four hours.

Okay, Tammy, you represented us humans well,

But alas, it’s time we welcome our benevolent robot overlords.

It's an honor to lose to him

That was beautiful.

I gotta say!

Good work, jigsaw.

At ease

So while jigsaw took his victory lap

I put the final touches

on the trophy I'd carved her.

You are the best the human race has to offer.

And you did a great job.

Just, you know, not that great

if you're a teenager or adult

and you've always wanted to make and build cool stuff

but just have it figured out that first step

This is it.

It's called the CrunchLabs Hack Pack

and it's basically a series

of really fun programable robots that get delivered right to your door.

Where we build it together and learn, step by step, the kinds of engineering skills

that go into making the builds on my YouTube channel,

and they all work with no programing required.

But since my goal is to take you from wherever you're at

and level you up, you can easily hack the microcontroller brains

of any of these robots in a bunch of ways to completely level up the functionality.

There's also a community

where you could share your builds or post questions,

as well as an AI chat bot named Mark Robot that will check your code for you

and help you implement your most creative ideas.

On top of all that, each box has a chance to contain a platinum diploma.

If you're box has it, congratulations because college is now

free for you or a loved one you want to transfer it to

plus you get to come out here and brainstorm

one of your own ideas with me and my team for a day.

So if you want to enhance or even just take the first step

of unlocking the really fun and rewarding hobby of making stuff,

just go to CrunchLabs.com

or use the link in the video description where to say thank you

We're giving away that free box as an early subscriber special

Thanks for watching.