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Golden Gopher Robotics, or GGR, is a team of undergraduate & graduate students from the University of Minnesota that takes part in the RoboMaster robotics competition.

History[edit]

Beginnings[edit]

Golden Gopher Robotics was founded under the University of Minnesota Robotics Campus Life Program (CLP) by a group of undergraduate students at the university. The teams first competed at the 2024 North American Standard Confrontation, a 1v1 competition hosted at the University of Colorado Boulder. The team stayed with the University of Minnesota Robotics CLP through 2025, then moving to its own space and financing seperate from the group.

Competition[edit]

2024[edit]

This was the team's first year competing. They competed with a single standard named "Alexander".

Alexander was the name of the team's first robot to see competition. The robot was a 4-wheeled standard built using a combination of pieces from a kit, cut aluminum sheeting, & 3D printed parts.

The team placed __ out of 28 teams.

2025[edit]

This was the team's second year competing in the 1v1 Standard Confrontation, and first year in the 3v3 competition at the North American RoboMaster University League competition.

The team competed with a single Standard named "B___" as well as their first Hero "A___" and first sentry "A___".

___ was the team's second Standard. This robot was the first standard the team entered in both the 1v1 Standard Confrontation & in the 3v3 Competition.
___ was the team's first Hero.
Amy was the team's first Sentry.

The team placed __ out of __ in the 1v1 confrontation, and __ out of __ in the 3v3 competition.

Moving Forward[edit]

The team is working on developing a competitive 3v3 fleet for the 2026 North American RoboMaster University League (RMUL) competition. Its primary focus is placed within the Sentry & Hero robot types.

The team is also beginning to invest research & development into creating prototypes for a complete 7v7 team. The full fleet will display an additional 4 robots. Another standard will be added to the fleet alongside a DART Launch system, Radar detection system, and a Drone robot. The team is hoping to compete at the RoboMaster University Championship within the next 2 years.

Team Composition[edit]

Participants[edit]

The GGR team is composed mainly of undergraduate students from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. Most of the participants are studying engineering in the university's College of Science and Engineering, but the team enjoys participation from a variety of majors and colleges at the University. The team started with about 15 students, but...

Team Organization & Administration[edit]

Golden Gopher Robotics is divided into 4 main subteams that are further split across 5 different robots within the GGR fleet. Each team is responsible for designing, assembling, and preparing different robots for competition.

The GGR team is composed mainly of undergraduate students from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. Most of the participants are studying engineering in the university's College of Science and Engineering, but the team enjoys participation from a variety of majors and colleges at the University. The team started with about 15 students, but...

Administration[edit]

Golden Gopher is run by a central board to ensure successful communication and efficient use of resources. The members of the board are free to interact with one another with items specific to 2-3 groups within the team. The team administration is further split with Robot Divisions, which places a project lead to oversee each robot's progress throughout the year.

Student leadership consists of the following six members:

The Board Chair oversees meetings, is the primary point of contact, and acts as competition lead and captain.
The Vice Chair is in charge of overseeing direct communication and collaboration between sub-teams and robot divisions.
The Mechanical Lead is typically an elected project lead from a specific robot team. There job is to be the main representative for the progress, actions, needs, and communication from the mechanical team.
The Programming Lead is in charge of oversight the Computer Vision team as well as the co-oversight of the controls teams (alongside each robot division lead). They act as the point of contact for the progress, actions, needs, and communication of the programming team.
The Operations Officer is in charge of the Operations Team, helping to obtain sponsorships, organize club events, and arrange for mutually beneficial relationships between local companies and the RoboMaster team.
the Supervisor is a faculty member who is central for communication between the team and organizations that hold authority over the team (such as the University of Minnesota or the RoboMaster Oversight Committee (RMOC)). The supervisor also plays an essential role in helping to organize the team at competition. The supervisor also ensures that the team appropriately represents the University of Minnesota at competition.

Sub-teams[edit]

The Mechanical Team is responsible for designing the robot using SolidWorks CAD Software. The team is also responsible for assembling and preparing the robots for use by the Programming and competition teams. The mechanical team (along with the Programming Team's controls unit) is split across each robot to efficiently distribute labor and efforts.
The Programming Team is responsible for all things programming across every robot. Controls projects are specific to each robot; however, this team boasts a Computer Vision (CV) & Vision Processing (VP) unit. The CV & VP unit works on auto-aim and operation programs that work with CV to help put the team on the scoreboard at competition.
The Operations Team is responsible for securing sponsors, accounting tasks, and any other finance-related aspects of the team. .
The Competition Team is responsible for the representation of the hard work of the entire team at the competitions competed in. The team is usually made up of members across each team as well as a faculty supervisor (as required by DJI for RMUL).

Robot Divisions[edit]

The Standard Alpha Team is responsible for the design, fabrication, and programming of the first of two Standard robots within the GGR fleet. This standard receives priority over Standard Beta due to its higher likelihood of competing, and need for higher performance.
The Standard Beta Team is responsible for the design, fabrication, and programming of the second of two Standard robots within the GGR fleet. This robot is generally used for practice and as a competition backup for Standard Alpha. It is the secondary team, typically a good way for students to become familiar with the team & competition before working on other robots.
The Hero Team is responsible for the design, fabrication, and programming of the Hero robot for RMUL. The Hero is a major component to competition, and is very important due to its higher damage deal.
The Sentry Team The sentry team is responsible for the design, fabrication, and programming of the Sentry robot that defends the GGR base at competition. It is typically the most experienced robot subdivision being a central part of the 3v3 competition.

Current Fleet[edit]

Sponsors[edit]

Dassault Systemes (SolidWorks)
University of Minnesota (Student Service Fund & on-campus space)

References[edit]

University of Minnesota Robotics website (2024-2025)