Redwood City Robot Battle Team Event Yields New Facebook Record
A Redwood City robot battle team event held near the Facebook campus yielded a new internal record robot build time for Team Skynet! The time of 28:30 (twenty eight minutes and thirty seconds) beat the previous record set on May 30th of 32:30 (thirty two minutes and thirty seconds). Going back as far as August of 2016 only 3 teams from Facebook have finished below 35 minutes from dozens of contestants. In addition to the two teams above, the September 20th group yielded a time of 32:42, the record at the time and for about 6 months.
The World Record currently held by Chowbotics at 25:57 has stood for almost 2 months and counting.
After completing the robot build each team faced off against another team to battle robots. Smashing robots and popping balloons, and spare parts falling on the floor were all signs of great battles. We had to repair and tune-up the robots several times as the teams were really getting after it. Luckily we stayed ahead of repairs and kept the battles going faster than a meme post. Which reminds me, this group is working on some really cool future tools for us on Facebook. They showed me the first iterations of 3-D moving pictures. The pictures have depth and some fun “gif” like movement. If you have a newer phone with two same-facing cameras you are all set.
Following the team battles we went several rounds of all-bot melee with the final competition being an awesome thriller. 10 points is a win in all-bot melee and all teams were actually tied with 9 points at the same time! The drama and suspense were amazing as every team feverishly battled to get the final point for victory. That 45 seconds was some of the best I have ever seen in any battle!
Robot Team Building
