[Qworg]

Do you want to do it as a career or just to play with?

[jiert]

I'd like to play with it at first but with the goal of someday making it a career.

[Qworg]

I'd take Thrun's course on autonomous robots.

I'd then implement it on a physical system - I'd focus on something other than Arduino, which doesn't translate well, and do it on RaspPi or similar.

[Qworg]

Also, folks are right RE: languages - you'll need to pick up C/C++ as well, and likely a little Python/alternative scripting language.