Simple Remote Robot Control with Game Controller

[ModMob]

As part of a larger project, I need to control a group of robots on a Zigbee mesh network.  My PC will be in the network so that I can perform some offline computing of more complex algorithms, if needed.  So, I have an XBee dongle for my PC and would like to use a game controller to control the robots.

The focus of my project isn’t how to interface a game controller to my PC, so I’m looking for the easiest solution.  Can anyone point me to a resource or product that makes using a game controller with your PC to remotely control a robot relatively simple? I don’t have a specific game controller in mind – it just needs to have enough inputs, which most do anyway.

Ideally, I could read in my controller inputs into something like matlab, perform some calculations then send commands to my robots via the Zigbee network.

Any tips or suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks,
Mod