Solving the Rubik's Cube with a PDDL Planner

Bharath Chandra Muppasani, Vishal Pallagani, Biplav Srivastava

Keywords: Rubik's Cube, Automated Planning, International Planning Competition

TL;DR: The paper introduces the first PDDL formulation of a 3x3 Rubik's Cube, submitted at IPC-23, targeting researchers and enthusiasts with a plan executor and visualizer.

Abstract: Rubik's Cube (RC) is a popular puzzle that is also computationally hard to solve. In this demonstration, we introduce the first PDDL formulation for the 3x3 RC and solve it with an off-the-shelf Fast-Downward planner. Notably, we submitted this PDDL domain to the International Planning Competition (IPC) 2023's Classical track, where it emerged as one of the toughest domains to solve. We also create a plan executor and visualizer to show how the plan achieves the intended goal. Our system has two types of audiences: (a) planning researchers who can explore a hard problem and improve their planning algorithms, and (b) RC learners who want to learn how to solve the puzzle at their own pace and can now modify an initial plan (e.g., manually, using other algorithms) and see their execution. See video at: https://youtu.be/YQZ2sj-x5js

Submission Number: 2