I'd also recommend building something with the Axon or Axon II from this site. It has a large support system and webbotlib makes it REALLY easy to program. I mean it has a program were you just click on what you want to plug into it, and it writes the difficult code for you, then you just use that code to make it do what you want.
As for connecting it to the computer. Do you mean to program it? Or do you mean to control it?
If you want to control it from the computer you can use bluetooth or wifi or similar.