The first thing you should do before you start building a robot I'd decide what functions it will serve so that it can be built efficiently. I decided that I wanted mine to be a mobile camera. After you decide what you want it to be, you need to find/make a shell. I got mine from an abandoned robot project, called Mesac, from a local scout post that my dad was a part of. It uses the tank tread system. Unfortunately the treads are gone, and I need to buy new ones that cost 80 bucks a piece, so I've been holding off on it. If you know of anyplace that makes a 1 inch tread in custom lengths for less than $80, please let me know. :)

After I fixed the shell a bit I started worrying about the insides and the camera. I bought a camera and wireless video transmitter/ receiver from X-10.Theirs is pretty nice and compact. I then got a dome, to put the camera inside of, from http://futurebots.com.

I decided that mine will be remote control at first, but after it is finished to my satisfaction I will hook it up to an old PowerBook or Palm Pilot to make it a true robot by moving without the assistance of humans. Right now I'm hooking it up to an old helicopter control. The left stick controls the pan and tilt of the camera, and the right stick controls the actual robot. On the right stick the x axis controls the left tread on the robot, and the y axis controls the right tread, so if I push the stick to the upper right hand corner, the robot moves forward, and if I move the stick to the bottom left corner it moves backwards. And the I can rotate the robot by moving the stick to the upper left hand corner or lower right hand corner.