Hello,
As part of my BTEC level 3 electronics project I am thinking of building my first ever robot, a featherweight (something I have always wanted to do and I think the the college would prefer a feather to a heavy!) After thinking of a few ideas I have decided that the most likely route I'll take is an electric axe bot.

For the drive motor I will most likely use the good old Argos drill motors for drive motors (unless anybody knows of an alternative that will work just as well?) and the armor will be HDPE along will any bits of scrap metal that my work will allow me to use.

For the axe I was thinking of a 200W scooter motor (see link below)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ZY-MY-1016...4AAOSwnONZCuJa

Would this motor work well? I have never done this before but after some research, this seems like a good choice.

I have a few questions:
What size wire will be best to use for all of the electronics within the robot? (although I am an apprentice electronics engineer i have no idea :P)

What batteries would be best to use? I like the idea of lipos but i know they can be quite dangerous so what is the best alternative?

What are the best wheels to use and also, what is the best way to fix the wheels to the drill motors? I have watched Ellis' video about using heat to melt some nuts into the wheels but is this the best way to do it?

Also, I know nothing about what speed controllers to use...

I am a complete newbie and have never done anything like this before. I have wanted to do this for a while and this BTEC project seems like the perfect opportunity to do it.

Money is a little bit of an issue but I don't want to make it too cheap and for it to end up being terrible.

I hope people dont mind getting bombarded by questions but I want this to go well :P

Thank you,
Owen