Links
Recommended suppliers of parts, robot kits, etc:
Sparkfun - A great company in Boulder, CO that supplies electronics parts and also has great instructional pages.
Active Innovations - Makers of the first RFL (Robotic Football League) robots. Robots that play American rules football.
Acroname - A robotics supply store based in Boulder, CO.
budgetrobotics.com - A company that sells robotics parts, mainly mobile bases including the frame, servo motors, hardware etc. They also sell toy platforms for hacking and many other useful items. This company is owned by the author of The Robot Builder's Bonanza, Gordon McComb.
The Robot Store - An electronic mail order company dealing in kits, sensors, etc.
Pololu - Las Vegas based store selling kits, parts.
Super Droid Robots - Great source for inexpensive wireless camera like that used on the club's Mars Rover Bots. They also sell housings for sensors, pan/tilt assemblies, etc.
Easy melt plastic - Used by Ken York on his bipedal walker's joints, this plastic can be melted in boiling water and then molded to whatever shape you like. The link goes to the product page at American Science and Surplus which carries a lot of neat and weird stuff.
Electronics Parts Suppliers: Listed in the order that I recommend checking for parts. All have electronic data bases for searching.
Electronic Goldmine - Surplus parts supplier. Great selection of surplus parts with great prices.
All Electronics - based in California, these guys have a good selection of parts, particularly small motors, but anything for that matter.
Jameco - Mail order company with consistently the best prices, but not always the best selection of parts. Jameco frequently ships just as fast as Digikey.
Digikey - Usually same day shipping with a huge array of virtually any part you'll need. I check the other guys first but I still order a lot of stuff from Digikey. If you order in quantity you can get a good price.
Other Robot Clubs or Robotics related links:
Seattle Robotics Society: SRS is a great robotics club with a large member base that publishes a monthly newsletter, The Encoder, chock full of great info. Years of documented project information at this site.
Dallas Personal Robotics Group - Good project info here as well. One of the older clubs in the nation.
makingthings.com - An interesting site designed for a beginner or a person that really doesn't want to horse around with creating hardware. Their Teleo system is a nice integrated package for driving motors, taking sensor inputs, etc and easily interfaced to an existing PC system.