Combination-lock-cracking robot

Students at Olin College have made a robot that can crack a MasterLock brand padlock's combination; it can work faster depending on whether it knows some, none or all of the combination. The documentation for the project is quite good.

Our final design was able to dramatically reduce the amount of material needed by turning the entire assembly on its side. In this way, the motor mount and spindle, the lock holder and the solenoid could all be considered distinct entities attached to a single base plate. Since torque on the base was not an issue like it was with the first two "tower" designs, we could make the base much thinner. This allowed us to make our slots longer without increasing the total cost much. Thus, we were able to make every component adjustable relative to the fixed lock base which allowed for quick insertion and removal of the lock, as well as easy tuning of the solenoid distance that allowed it to consistently pull the lock latch all the way open. This was critical because one of the main problems we dealt with was assuring the location of the solenoid relative to the lock. The solenoid had a very thin range of positions that it would work from; too far from the lock it did have enough energy to pull the latch, too close to the lock and it didn't have the travel to pull the latch completely open.

The LockCracker (via Neatorama)

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MORE: lockpicking • Technology

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Anonymous

here’s the link to the video embedded in the article for all of you who want to paste it into a webservice that will hide your location.

.~.
Alvis

I’m dissapointed by the lack of understanding the group seems to have into how the lock works:

“With 40 numbers on the combination lock, approximately 9 degrees of separation exists between each number.”

If they dissasembled a MasterLock, they’d see that there aren’t 40 possible positions (something more like 10 or 12, if I recall), so they’re wasting an epic amount of time trying all those.

Maybe they were just too anxious to build without stopping to understand the problem first?
- Anonymous
  
  Older locks do have somewhere in the range of 12 “zones” of numbers that yield the possible combinations.
  
  However, newer serial number locks seem to have a higher tolerance (closer to 20 zones). We initially were operating under the first understanding of fewer zones but found that it was not effective for all locks. We wanted our system to be work 100% of the time, rather than most of the time at a faster rate.
  
  -Jessica (member of the student team who built the LockCracker)
japroach

mirror: http://www.megavideo.com/?v=IM0GKF1K
johnphantom

Uh, a variant “picking” can be done by a human much more quickly.

I was shown how to open this particular lock by a cellmate at the federal part of a county jail, on my own lock, back in 1990. It took him about a minute to do it, maybe less. What essentially happens is when you pull the hinge while turning the dial, it will pop slightly when it hits the right number, and eventually you can open the lock.

Do not use this lock if you don’t want something worthwhile to be stolen by pretty much any person who has been an inmate for a bit of time.
Anonymous

“it can work faster depending on whether it knows some, none or all of the combination”

Thanks.
apuesto

JSYK, a sharp rap with a hammer at 10 o’clock will do the trick on a Master combination lock. There is enough horizontal force to jolt the latch spring and enough simultaneous downward force to keep the latch from resetting.

I’d like to see a machine that can hammer open a dozen locks in the time it takes this robot to figure out a single missing number.
- johnphantom
  
  Despite knowing how to pick and bump tumbler locks, or use bolt cutters like the janitor at schools, I prefer to use brute force: kick the door down or use a crowbar to break the lock off the door/container/shed. This is efficient, unless the door is fortified, which most doors are not. Usually the weakness of locks like the one in this article is the way they are attached, and attacking the lock itself is not the smart way to go about it, if time matters.
  
  I saw one of my best friends kick down a fairly well fortified locked hotel door, with one kick – and I don’t mean just open; he kicked it to the floor, off its hinges.
  
  There is no lock that will keep you or your items safe from determined persons, and you should be ready for that.
Anonymous

When I asked the team about it, they said they wanted it to work for more than just Master brand combination locks, which is why it doesn’t take advantage of the Master lock specific hacks. It would be cool for a future version to take the brand into account and apply those shortcuts, though!
hadlock

While this is definitely an impressive first attempt by first year engineering students (not to mention the experience of actually producing a finished product), I was sort of expecting the stepper motor to be vibration-isolated from the dial, and using some sort of sensor to “hear” when the correct number was selected.
johnphantom

For reference only, as I posted above:

http://www.wikihow.com/Crack-a-%22Master-Lock%22-Combination-Lock
Anonymous

“This video has content by Sony Music Entertainment. It’s not available in your country.

*SIGH* Us germans never get to see the good things!”

I’m wondering why a video about a lock-picking robot has music in it at all . . .
Anonymous

It looks like it’s just brute-forcing the combination at high speed. I’d be a lot more impressed if it was actually applying the method we used to use in middle school to break Master locks (tensioning the shackle to sense where the dial “sticks”).
- Anonymous
  
  This method only works on older Masterlocks. The newer serial numbers can not be opened using the shackle method.
kibbee

Those kind of locks were known for being easy to open if you knew the right trick. Just about everybody in my highschool used dudley locks. I’m not sure if they were harder to crack, but I don’t recall anybody being able to crack one, short of shoulder surfing.
Anonymous

It’s probably more enjoyable without the generic rap music. Why would they choose music like that anyway? To reflect the sophistication of their device? To add class to the presentation? To show that “Yeah, we’re engineering students, but we’re also street”?
- Anonymous
  
  Hahaha I’m a member of the team that built this and made the video. We never really imagined it would get the viewership that it did and the music chosen was playing on the song lyrics (Pop, LOCK it, drop it). It was just a joke for what was intended to be a presentation video for our class.
  
  A new version of the video without music can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUilAoRzAj4
freshacconci

Another human put out of work by a machine.
Anonymous

A new video without music can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUilAoRzAj4.

Sorry for the delay in releasing a silent version for international viewers.
rourin_bushi

So, am I the only one briefly confused by the title? I parsed it initially as
“Combination (lock-picking) robot”
(whose second function was not stated for some reason), rather than
“(Combination lock)-picking robot”
bcsizemo

These students today have it so easy with all their off the shelf parts…

Back in my day you built your own stepper controller…*sigh*.
Anonymous

This video has content by Sony Music Entertainment. It’s not available in your country.

*SIGH* Us germans never get to see the good things!
Anonymous

I feel kinda sorry for the lock. It looks like its getting a beatdown by that machine. And that music is crap. Why do people feel the need for music on their videos. This isnt MTV.
-Barnyard
Anonymous

“This video contains music from Sony Music Entrapment, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.”

No movie for me. This really makes me want to run off to the record store!
osmo

For some reason Sony Music has blocked the video here…?