Ta da! New Guinness World Record set for completing a Rubik's Cube in just 3.253 seconds... by a robot

The Guinness World Record for solving a Rubik's Cube in the fastest time has today been smashed by a robot. The Cubestormer 3 solved the cube in a speedy 3.253 seconds - much to the delight of spectators at the Big Bang Fair, held at the NEC in Birmingham. The robot's record-breaking time beat the previous non-human record of 5.27 seconds - set by the machine's predecessor, the Cubestormer 2. Before that, the record stood at 10.69 seconds - achieved by a robot built by final year computing students at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia in 2011. The Cubestormer 3 was built over 18 months by engineer co-designers David Gilday and Mike Dobson who were working with technology company ARMMobile. The machine uses an ARM-powered Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone to analyze the cube and instruct four robotic hands to do move the elements of the cube. Speaking before the challenge, Dominic Vergine from ARM, said: 'We are very confident the robot will break the record. 'The new robot can think three times faster than its older brother. The record-breaking attempt is a bit of fun for us. 'Our real focus is to demonstrate what can be achieved with readily-available technology to inspire young minds into taking a greater interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.' The Big Bang Fair is an annual science, technology, engineering and maths event for young people aged between 7 and 19.