Have you searched anything on the web? That's where I got alot of my basic MCU info. If you wanted to make one that you'll use over and over, I would recommend following the basic design of the $50 robot board. Don't try anything too complicated and make sure when you build one, it's organized (I've made that mistake a few times).
Also, there are many programming kits and such all over the internet at robot/electronics stores. You will also need to figure out which microcontroller you would want to use and programming environment.
Hope this helps,
Canabots