I'm looking for some tips on how to best implement the algorithm to accomplish the following:
- Imagine a 3×3 cube with a rubik's cube mechanism, i.e. you can freely rotate any of the 6 faces.
- You don't care about colors.
- Instead you index the component 26 cubes A–Z and ignore the middle.
Illustration image (component cubes): https://paste.pics/AOYUS
Now, I would like to generate a list of face rotations that would get me from this configuration to some other configuration. E. g. this: https://paste.pics/AOYWM
Note: I don't care which component cubes end up in positions labeled as *
Ideally the algorithm produces the shortest list of transformations necessary, but it's not a firm condition. Any suggestions welcome, thanks!