Hi Im Josh a member here in the EZ Robot community , welcome

Step one buy ez board and cam Step 2 get your rover ( seriously though just get the dagu rover 5 in dj store or a rad 2.0 base they are more modder friendly and have room for what you want) Next buy your claw ( I probably have one I could send you free) otherwise spark fun has aluminium ones. If your using a win 7 compatible wireless remote then you should be able to use it.

I want to help more but I need to know more about your goals. Also did you already buy the brookstone. If not then dont. The rover 5 or a rad base have more open space to mount what you need. The ez board is as easy as robot mods can get. The best part is the software is free and has free updates.

Just taking a look heres the pics of what I recommend to quickly achieve your goals plus once your done with this project you can use the ez robot equipment for another project....

Rover 5 39.99 Ez robot cam Ez robot board Claw w wrist & two servos kit 45 L298n h bridge (runs rovers motors) Sonar hr04 sensor

With these 6 items you can easily accomplish what you want and really look like you were much more creative than sticking a claw on a brookstone rover. You would have full control or it could run autonomous but I assure you that you will be better off getting parts that easily work together rather than trying to hack something to have more feature s or appendages than it was meant to.

So, if I used everything you said other than the sonar sensor, it will be pretty much a plug & play straightforward setup? I'm not familiar with robotics much and just want to throw this together without having to really do any advanced robotics. So the setup above would be everything I need? I'd like to get a controller that would operate the vehicle and camera as well. Any ideas?

http://files.asme.org/asmeorg/Events/Contests/DesignContest/31870.pdf

This is the 2013 ASME competition problem statement if you want to know the actual goals of the vehicle, but it's really simple. I need to be able to retrieve and deploy a 2" tall by 1" diameter cylindrical sensor vertically (claws for this). I have to engage a button, any contact counts (use the claw again). Read a gage display (camera). Negotiate the course with obstacles, but the obstacles will allow the vehicle to navigate around them (rover). Also, the operator will be in a different room viewing the visual feed from the camera and will not have a direct view of the course. That's pretty much it. I just want a very simple setup....rover, claw, camera, & controller. I just need to know what else I need for this setup to work.

Sure . Get everything listed except sensor and ARC can use the Movement Panel to move you robot around easily. The ezb makes everything feel plug n play soon as your h bridge and two servos for the claw are connected. The cam requires quick install of drivers but other than that I had my first cam working in 5 minutes. Put your order in and enjoy yourself

My suggestion is this combo for an alternative: Available in the SHOP

Wild Thumper 4WD Chassis With Gripper $149.00 The Complete Robot Kit $235 (has the wireless camera and other goodies) 2.5 Amp Motor Controller $14.99 And a 6v or 12v battery (like is used in a UPS or emergency lighting) to power it all.

You would control the whole unit from a laptop via Bluetooth, including watching the video take (via the wireless camera's receiver dongle - in the kit). If your laptop doesn't have Bluetooth, then snag one of those dongles from the shop as well.

This way you won't have to spend too much time modding the Rover to take on the claw and EZ-B