I am planning to build a robot.
1) What free or low cost robot modelling tools exist.
Here are some that I know of:
Solidworks student edition: http://www.solidworks.com/sw/education/cad-faq-students.htm (Free for students who use a school's privately assigned password, otherwise $149)
AutoCAD Student version: http://students.autodesk.com/ (Free for students)
Google Sketchup: http://www.sketchup.com/products/sketchup-make (Free)
FreeCAD: http://www.freecadweb.org/ (Free)
Blender
is worth being added here (I'm adding as a comment since the thread is closed and I can't post a new answer).
$\endgroup$