Per videos released by David Cuartielles on the official Arduino Google+ channel, a "turtle" type 2 deck, 2 wheel (blue of course) Arduino Robot will be coming out soon.
The unit has an LCD display (similar to the one coming out for Esplora), 8 or more Tinketkit connectors, buzzer, rotary encoder, etc.
The unit will look alot like the older Lottie Lemon robots sponsored by the team.
In this recording from the Maker Faire, Arduino's Massimo Banzi tells that the basic robot will cost about $159EDIT:$259 (see minute 5:30).
EDIT May 19: This article claims that the price is $275. Also, in the video linked there, Massimo seems to say $250-259 (but it is quite difficult to understand in this one, see minute 03:40).
Listening to the first video again, it seems to be indeed $259.
AA battery slot 4 alkaline or NiMh rechargeable batteries
The battery holder holds 4 rechargeable NiMh AA batteries.
NB : Do not use non-rechargeable batteries with the robot
:~
They should be a little more explicit about what they mean. There are
rechargeable alkalines now,
Just a guess, but I imagine they are using a boost converter that requires < 5V
for Vin, and 4 regular alkalines would produce 6V.
I like what they did on the Pololu Zumo robot. The board uses 4 AA-cells and
the dc-dc converter puts out 7.45V, and they run the motors at that voltage.
Plus, you can plug in your regular Arduino board and power it off the same 7.45V.
I see today (23.05.13) that the official Arduino Robot is available to order on Maker SHED. (I sure hope my wife doesn't check the credit card balance right away).
I think Arduino team would do the entire community a favor following this up very, very quickly with an option that includes magnetic rotary encoders, gyro and 2-axis accelerometer, for very basic navigation capabilities and gyrodometry.
I have seen a few of young budding roboticists get disappointed and disillusioned with their hobby as soon as they learn the limitations of dead reckoning, and more often they are unable to take the next step on their own without a lot of guidance.