For building a robot, the ideal development board depends on the complexity of your robot — whether it’s a simple line-follower, a robotic arm, or a vision-guided AI bot. Here's a breakdown by robot type and recommended boards:
Types of Robot Projects and Recommended Boards
1. Basic Robots (Line-followers, obstacle avoiders)
Tasks: Motor control, reading IR/ultrasonic sensors, LEDs
Recommended boards:
- Arduino Uno/Nano – Simple, cheap, huge community
- STM32F103 (Blue Pill) – Faster, more timers/PWM than Arduino
- ESP32 – Also adds Wi-Fi/Bluetooth for remote control
2. Intermediate Robots (Bluetooth/IoT controlled, sensor-rich)
Tasks: BLE or Wi-Fi control, multiple sensors (IMU, GPS), display, buzzer
Recommended boards:
- ESP32 – Best value; wireless + decent power
- STM32 Nucleo-F401/F411 – Great performance, many peripherals
- Teensy 4.0 – High performance for motion control or audio
3. Advanced Robots (Self-balancing, SLAM, voice or image-based control)
Tasks: Real-time control + AI/vision + communication
Recommended boards:
- Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 – Linux OS, camera support, OpenCV, Python/ROS
- NVIDIA Jetson Nano / Xavier NX – AI edge computing, TensorRT for ML
- Raspberry Pi + Arduino combo – Pi for vision, Arduino for real-time motor control
4. Robotic Arm / CNC / Inverse Kinematics
Tasks: Precise PWM/servo control, forward/inverse kinematics
Recommended boards:
- STM32F4 or STM32F7 – High-speed MCU with math libraries
- Teensy 4.1 – Powerful MCU (600 MHz) for smooth motion planning
- Arduino Due – 32-bit MCU, supports complex math, cheap
Extra Modules You’ll Likely Use
Summary Table
