I will be taking a bit of a break from the APM rover to start a new project that's a bit more challenging. I got this idea from a game in the fallout series (New Vegas) where-by a robot acts as a greeter, a tour guide and or a security robot that can detect unauthorized personnel in a private company.
I intend on using OpenCV for this project as there are many open source projects to learn from on the internet.
In the game they hover but mine will be 'wheeled', without the probing tools and angre grinder ofcourse!
List of materials and cost:
Motor controller:
50A dual motor controller (very arduino friendly) $25
http://www.elechouse.com/elechouse/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=100_146&products_id=2179
Brains:
Ga d525tud Motherboard Intel Atom D525 1.80Ghz, 4gb ddr3 ram, 320gb hdd $60. $83.50 (with power supply)
Ebay.com
Arduino Uno $12
Ebay.com
Monitor: 17 inch Flatron monitor (vga) $5 ($23.50 including dc-ac inverter)
Ebay
3mm Aluminium sheets 400 x 400mm x2 $28.00
Update #1
The motors i will use are 2 wiper motors. The exact same ones from my outdoor platform i made earlier. They are sitting on a 3mm thick aluminium sheet. 
Result after drilling the holes and mounting the swivel wheels. The mounts are quite sturdy and there is no wobble.
The standoffs that will hold the mini ix board, hdd, arduino and the motor controller. These are 45mm standoffs and can be purchased in bulk on ebay.
Stay tuned!
Update #2.
The motherbboard is the GA D525TUD, with an atom processor soldered to the board clocked at 1.8ghz. At $83 with a psu its a bargain!
I used a 160w pico itx psu that was the cheapest i could find. I think its a bit over-kill since my itx, ram and hdd only use a maximum of 26w normal usage ( web browsing while listening to music.) but it was the only one and the cheapest i could find. Since i will be using Lithium Polymer batteries, i soldered an XT60 Plug to easily connect my batteries and their shape makes it impossible to reverse-connect.
Everything assembled onto an a4 sized 2mm perspex sheet, with a bit of room to spare.
The mini itx, arduino, motor controller all mounted onto the chassis.
Another View
Stay tuned!
Greets people, recognizes faces, tracks moving objects and follows them (hopefully)
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/mobile-facial-recognition-robot-platform