Which Arduino board for my application?

Other Hardware Robotics
1

I have built a robot prototype operated currently by RC.

I'm ready to move to microprocessor control. The robot weighs about 50 lbs, stands 42" tall and is 24"wide. I'm new to robotics but have a basic understanding in C++. The battery power currently is a 12v lead acid rechargeable. The robot has 4 motors powering the 4 wheels, 1 motor powering a single arm, 1 motor powering a hand. With microprocessor control, I will add 2 collision sensors, compass, internet connectivity and some path programming. Maybe a camera feed.

Which Arduino board (and any other Arduino accessory boards) would work best for this project?

Thanks for the advice.

Robochas.

2

robochas:
Maybe a camera feed.

Do you intend to interface the microcontroller to the camera output(such as doing machine vision)?

3

Arduino Mega will work fine

You can use a WiFi module for internet connectivity

However , if you want camera feed

you may go for RasperryPi boards

4

Pert - machine vision might be a stretch for me, but maybe. For now just more of a GoPro type of application that I can watch the robot's movement through his "eyes" in real time on my PC.

5

Yeah, I'd consider the Arduino Mega because your program is likely to use quite a bit of memory once you get the internet connectivity in there and the Mega has the most of any standard AVR based Arduino board. It is a relatively large board, if that's an issue there may be some alternatives I could suggest. You could likely get by with one of the ATmega328P based boards(Uno, Nano, Pro mini) but you may end up being more limited by the memory available.

The AVR microcontrollers are very well supported and easy to work with. Definitely the best choice for a beginner. There are more modern options that have much better performance(Due, Zero, MKRZERO, the newer Teensy boards, STM32, ESP8266 for example) but they tend to be more difficult to work with so I prefer to work with AVR unless the capabilities don't support my application. Certainly once you get into demanding applications like machine vision the AVR won't cut it anymore. For some people the newer hardware is more exciting and they consider AVR to be a thing of the past. So you will have to evaluate your needs.

6

Thanks pert and Sparkson - I think I'll try the Mega for starters. Yes, I will need a bit of memory for all of its applications. Thanks for the good advice!