1. An autonomous robot development platform, comprising: a chassis including: a differential drive including at least first and second differentially driven wheels, a proximity sensor directed toward a forward end of the chassis, a cliff sensor positioned toward the forward end of the chassis, a switch disposed proximally to a caster, and a sensor circuit connected to the proximity sensor, to the cliff sensor and to the switch; 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, such that the robot's center of gravity is located within the perimeter of the bed; a plurality of mounts formed within the walls of the bed for mounting one or more payloads or modular attachments to the bed; 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, connected to the I/O circuit, and capable of receiving and transmitting responses to the formatted commands; 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.