[troy_dietz]

Assuming that this will be a simple robot (no vision or crazy sensors) if you can find someone that can code in pbasic or C, you could even use the old IFI control system. They're inexpensive and many older teams may have boxes of the robot controllers, operator interfaces, radios, and serial port joysticks. If they have those, they probably also have some 883s that they'd be willing to part with.
You'll never have a radio issue and they can take quite a beating. If you do manage to break one, all you have to do is load your code onto the new controller and drop it in. You won't even have to re-tether the radio.
We have some sitting around from 2003 and 2004 and they still work flawlessly (even though the robots don't)