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Hey Greg,
I started building by working with some people that do machining to get a better handle on different metals. (strengths/weakness machinability) I also started working on this years drive system to get a better feel for what a robust drive would be like and how to make it easily replaceable. I really like tanks but be careful, most tank tracks get destroyed in the battle arena by spinners and the kill saws where as you can take a pneumatic wheel fill it with something like greatstuff (foam) and you can cut it and it still keeps working. Also to be successful make things redundant. If you can, don't use 2 motors for the drive, use four or more since a loss of 1 or 2 won't get your bot counted out. So far my drive is all spur gear driven and fully welded supported by ball bearings. No set screws, keyways only welds. When I have 2 dissimilar metals we weld a flange on the steel and bolt the 2 together. On most of the gears on this years robot we turned them on a lathe and drilled out holes in them - the result: 70 weight reduction still tough as nails. Check out BioHazards website on robotbooks.com
Seriously find a fast connection and download ProDesktop from PTC it is a 3-d design software that has kinematics inside that allows you to make linkages and 'animate' them. Many of the BB use this you see it all over at the arena. From what I hear its best to start in the lighter weight divisions but everything I build seems to weigh in too much so we went for intermediate. To build a battlebot I truely believe you must have or have access to large machine tools such as: milling machine, lathe, drill press, band saw, possibly welder.
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