Black Bot - Arduino bot made from black plastic

I have been lurking here for a while, and I thought I might let everybody in on my bot in progress.

 It is a differential drive robot with an ir distance sensor mounted on a servo, and a two channel RC receiver.

 I initially wrote firmware to make the robot radio controlled in order to test the chassis. The bot terrifies my dogs for some reason, so it was fun to chase them with it. The bot is way too slow to give a good chase and the RC fun wore off quickly, so I added an IR sensor to the front of it; mounted on a servo. I have some awful obstacle avoidance code written for it as part of my initial stab at avoiding objects while roaming at random. I wrote an article for uChobby about visualizing the IR sensor data from this robot. Cost to build is rough estimate for all new parts. I got some parts for cheap/free.

Right now my bot has no other job apart from wander around and not run into anything. I am still looking for a better job for it.

Microcontroller: Arduino

Drivetrain: Continuous rotation servos

Battery: Lipo 2s 2Ah

Sensors: IR proximity; RC reciever

Possible improvements:

Improve obstacle avoidance with front ir sensor.

add switch for RC reciever for remote control option, and so I can stop draining the battery with the reciever while not using it.

Add status leds.

Add switches and feelers for more robust collision detection.

Add config switches.

Add lcd.

Add additional IR sensors.

Add rate gyro for precise rotation control.

Add accelerometer.