Help with School Project, RC car

[Metalic soulja]

Hey all,
I'm making a large (roughly 1:4 scale of a Hummer) radio controlled car for a school project.
I need some advice on how to go about setting up controlling it as i would like to use a laptop built into it which controls parts of the car (steering, driving, lighting, audio etc) in which is controlled by a wireless Xbox 360 controller, an Ipod touch (via wi-fi) or simply for starters a wireless keyboard and mouse. I am also putting in a camera which has its own wireless setup so there's no problem there although i would like to maybe control it with the computer for at least on and off.
Id just like some advice on what microcontroller(s) would be recommended for a project like this as i haven't the money to experiment and waste money on something that wont do what i need it to. Also any ideas of whatever anyone thinks would make this project even more awesome would be appreciated
Thanks in advance.

 

[Metalic soulja]

uhhh anyone?

 

[dknguyen]

Any microcontroller will work. WHat's important is which one has developent tools that you have access to.

 

[Mikebits]

That is almost 4 feet long. Are you really going to make such a big RC?

 

[nickelflippr]

Here's your link for a wi-fi robot, large wallet required.

 

[Metalic soulja]

yep that's how big its gonna be (I already have the chassis cut out).
And if you didnt understand what i was trying to say... what i AM doing is putting in a laptop to control the functions of the car which are steering, motor control, lighting, audio and possibly video but that doesn't matter atm.
What i am really asking is from here what is the best way to go?
ive looked at usb micro controllers which from how i understand are run while plugged into the computer and controlled via the computer... DC Motor and Servo Control Using a Single USB Port on a PC is this right? or even the best way to go?

 

[torpedohanen]

hallo i am doing a projekt like yours. we are using a stk500 board with an atmega16 chip an programming with visual studio

 

[solis365]

if that motorbee you linked to can control the motors directly from a USB port, and youre going to mount a laptop in the car, whats the problem?

the only thing youd need to do then is to write some software that allows whatever controller youre using (xbox360 as you mentioned) to interact with the Motorbee software.

 

[Metalic soulja]

that's exactly what i was going to do... What i want to know is well really will this motorbee do what it says it will and if anyone has used one before? And i was checking if other people would recommend it with me having no experience i thought id better check that I'm doing the right thing before i spend my money.