I found a great Instructables for an Arduino based robot called the SERB. I had a friend laser the parts and I put it together this weekend. You can see a picture of it at http://mikesrobots.wordpress.com . I also have pics of an Arduino rover I am building.
The next step for my SERB robot is to add Sharp IR sensors. I'm a total programming newb so it may take a while to make them work.
Mike
I find that the wheels are the hardest part. What are you using for motors and wheels? How did you connect them?
The motors are Futaba 3003 servos....standard size and pretty cheap...about US$10. The wheels are part of the SERB design. They are made up of two plates each, with spacers between the plates leaving a gap of 5mm or so. An o-ring is stretched around the wheel and rests in the gap creating a very stout tire/wheel unit.
I did not realize that higher grade servos have metal gears and are much more sturdy, so that may be a future upgrade. But so far, even with the weight of a 6v gell cell, I have not had any problems.
Those servos are hacked for continuous rotation right?
You shouldn't have any problem with plastic geared servos driving that bot. The problems come when you move heavy loads with sudden starts and stops. Write good motion code with gentle speedups and slowdowns and you can make servos last and last.
Yes, they are hacked for continuous rotation. Just a simple 5min job with a razor knife. So far the plastic gears are holding up fine. I'll take the advice about smooth starts and stops.