1. An autonomous robot development platform, comprising: a chassis including: a differential drive including at least first and second differentially driven wheels, and a sensor circuit connected to one or more sensors; an I/O circuit including at least one input and one output; a bed formed in the chassis between the two differentially driven wheels and extending from the top to the bottom of the chassis; a plurality of mounts formed within the walls of the bed for mounting at least one external computing device having a wherein the at least one external computing device includes a processor; a control circuit connected to the differential drive, to the sensor circuit, and to the I/O circuit and including a microprocessor; a communication port provided within the bed and configured to connect the connection interface of the at least one external computing device to the control circuit via the I/O circuit; and a computer memory configured to store robot control instructions executable by the control circuit, the robot control instructions including a command interpreter routine and a serial input handler, wherein the command interpreter routine is configured to cause the control circuit to receive one or more formatted commands and to respond to the one or more formatted commands by initiating the serial input handler, and wherein the serial input handler is configured to cause the control circuit to communicate with the differential drive, the I/O circuit, the sensor circuit, or the communication port.