cube-solver

This module contains a collection of Rubik's cube solvers implemented in JavaScript. It can solve a given cube using the fantastic Kociemba two-phase algorithm, generate random state scrambles, solve steps such as the cross or the Roux first block, and provide a variety of different scramble types.

Installation

Run yarn install cube-solver or similar, then require the cube-solver module. You can also manually add the bundle file to your webpage using this unpkg link, in which case the solver will be available globally as cubeSolver.

Examples

// Get a new random-state scramble.
const scramble = cubeSolver.scramble();
// Solve the first block.
cubeSolver.solve(scramble, 'fb') // => R L2 B' U' L2 D' F'
// Get a ZBLL scramble.
cubeSolver.scramble('zbll'); // => R B2 R' U' L U' L U' F2 R2 U' B2 U R2 D' F2 U'

Notes

The full 3x3 solver is pretty slow compared to other solvers such as the GWT compiled version of min2phase - it rather aims to be simple and extensible. Unless explicitly initialized, the Kociemba solver initializes when solving the first cube, which usually takes around 2 seconds. Generating and solving a random cube takes around 100ms on average, but for some cubes the number can be quite high. The EOLine, FB, and Cross solvers initialize pretty quickly, while the XCross solver also takes around 2 seconds. As a consequence, you probably want to use this library in conjunction with web workers.

Documentation

The solver exposes three main methods.

• cubeSolver.scramble(type = '3x3') lets you generate scrambles for the entire cube or subsets of it --- see below for a list of available scramblers.
• cubeSolver.solve(scramble, type = 'kociemba') lets you solve either the entire cube or a subset of it for a given scramble. See below for a list of available solvers.
• cubeSolver.initialize(solver) lets you initialize solvers so that the first solve is quicker. See below for a list of available solvers. Note that to speed up ramdom-state scramblers, the Kociemba solver should be initialized.

In general, the solvers will put the feature being solved for on the bottom. For example, using normal scrambling orientation, solving for an XCross will yield a yellow cross with the front-left pair solved. To solve other positions, you can apply pre-moves to your scrambles. This example shows how to find a bottom-left yellow XCross:

const scramble = `U2 B2 D R' F R2 U2 L D R2 L2 F2 U R2 U' L2 D F2 R2`;
// Find an optimal solution for cross + the back left pair.
cubeSolver.solve(`y ${scramble}`); // => U L2 F' R' F' D L' D

Available scramble types

Available solver types