Robotic Brain - Picking a Microcontroller for a robust application

[switchgirl]

Hello, I am researching the best brain/microcontroller board to use for a robot that detects IR then goes towards the IR signal. I have the mechanics working very well using RC motor controllers, but it needs a new brain to sense the IR accurately and detect when battery power is low and send an RF signal to a remote computer. For all this, I need something very robust that can last a couple years with few if any updates, mods, or crashes as the robot will be in a different state than I live and I don't want to go and fix it all the time.

I am familiar with PIC but don't want to build a board from scratch (not for this application anyway). Rather, I think its better to have a board pre-built and then I  do the programming and hook up the sensors, motor control, and battery-low detection.

Does anyone have suggestions? Has anyone used Ardurino board for this? Are they robust enough?

Thanks!

[Admin]

This should get you started:
http://www.societyofrobots.com/robot_faq.shtml#best_microcontroller