Need control suggestions/ideas for a WiFi robot

[Jumper]

Hi All - Great site.  I'm glad I found it.

After a few years of assembling stuff (pack ratting as my wife calls it) I have gotten started building my first robot.  It will be a 6-wheel high mobility outdoor robot on a rocker-bogie chassis.  I intend to tank steer it with left and right drive channels.  It will carry an IP camera and a wireless router configured as a wireless bridge that will interface with my home network.  I intend to control the camera separately from the robot with its own control software connected to my network through the bridge.  I want to have a few sensors on the robot to avoid obstacles (probably a sonar or IR sensor and front and rear bumper switches).  And I'm thinking it would be nice to operate semi-autonomously when I'm not remote controlling it.  Maybe a simple surveillance route around my yard.  Its very similar in concept to this one from superdroidrobots.com, http://www.superdroidrobots.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=947.  Instead of using their RS232 network adapters I'm leaning toward this board form Winford Engineering: http://www.winfordeng.com/products/eth32.php.  I need some suggestions for the on-board micro controller. Couple things to know about my abilities; I am mechanically inclined and the chassis, drive motors and overall construction is my strong-point.  Programming, OTOH, is almost totally new to me.   I'm not afraid to learn, but I'd rather plug-n-play than program. I'm considering using my home computer as the remote brains but I'm not sure I can eliminate the micro-controller altogether. And, I'm not sure what software would be the best for remote-brains. So I could really use some suggestions.  In fact, I probably cant complete it without some suggestions.  Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Ro-Bot-X]

It will be a 6-wheel high mobility outdoor robot on a rocker-bogie chassis.

Take a look at this one: http://letsmakerobots.com/node/14156

The Winford ETH32 device has everything a microcontroller can offer, but I think you can't program it to be autonomous. You just access the info through a network. You can replace this device with a microcontroller and program it yourself to do everything ETH32 does and be autonomous.

As for possible microcontrollers, I would take a look at the Axon II or at the Arduino Mega (plus a multipurpose shield). As for controlling the microcontroller through a (wireless) network, there are ready made shields for Arduino and also stand alone devices that can be interfaced with the Axon II, so you don't even need the bridge router on your robot, if you use a wireless IP camera.

To program the microcontroller, Axon II can be easily programmed using WebbotLib and Arduino Mega has even an easier to learn language, both free. Take a look at both and pick the one that suits you best.

[Jumper]

Robot-X  I saw the wild thumper a couple days ago.  Its a neat design.  The rocker-bogie is a little different and I've already got a good start on a prototype.  

I've looked at the Axon II and a little at one of the Arduino's.  Is most of the programming available to download for these controllers? It seems like there are so many ways to do it and I don't have enough experience to feel like I can make an informed decision.  I think I'm still leaning toward using an onboard wireless router/bridge.  I think its simpler to configure one network device and, I've got another 3 or so network ports available if I want to expand later.  Plus their relatively inexpensive.  Keep the suggestions coming please.