It's fascinating how much more anthropomorphic it seems when it seems to have desires-- when it's trying to get into a box, rather than just rolling around shaking hands with people.
That's what I was thinking - it looked excited to get a new toy, then frustrated by the packaging. We've all been there.
It's also an interesting reminder that something we take for granted as simple - opening a cardboard box - can be ridiculously complex for something that's not human... even if it's remotely controlled, let alone autonomous.
Just learn how to build big software systems. This might be as simple as a usb camera in a linux box with a serial port connection to some motor controller. That is actually really complicated, but all the components are pretty cheap.
If you can get a wifi streaming webcam with tele-operated control, you have the basic components of a PackBot. It's not rugged, or self balancing with arms, but it's there.
One mistake aspiring roboticists make is thinking that robotics is something different. Actually it's just a lot of mechanical, software, electrical, and systems engineers working together. Autonomy algorithms for robotics are certainly domain specific, but the skills needs have broad application - meaning most coders have them.
I see. I think I will take your advice about a simple system, though. It's that Anybot's <a href="http://anybots.com/join.html">career</a> page seems to imply that I should have built something. :)
edit: Ok, I see the driver now (Trevor?). It's still amazing. How is the control UI done--I was expecting more like puppeteering...