Advice please on a robotics project

I want to embark on a new robotics project. I just finished programming the quadraped (it’s the older 2dof version that I bought 5-6 years ago but was too hard for me at the time) and I want to move on to learn other stuff.

I’m a mech eng. student at ryerson university (so in case I need access to machinery) but I have never built my own robot. Can someone give me some advice. As to how to effectively start a project?

I want to build a robot very similar (probably identical actually) to the Rhex.

(I can’t post websites so pls type in rhex on youtube if you want to see a video)

This is very preliminary and I see myself spending (if needed) up to 1.5k… but I hope it’s not that much. I’m thinking of using the Oopic microcrontoller to learn C…

BTW I do want this to be autonomous at some point in the project life. So it might have to be a bit bigger (like a 1/8 scale rc car?)

IMHO ,you should start with the legs (wheels) and motors and decide how big this beast is gonna be u might be able to use 4WD rover if it has enough lenth to fit the legs (wheels) if not jims got lexan panel for sale
so u could “roll ur own” and as for micros the atompro can be programed in C

PS
Thats an awsome Bot