Hi,
AVR is the way to go for robotics projects, coming from a guy who has used both PICs and AVRs.
Simply because AVR has a larger knowledge and support base.
Nonsense, probably caused by the fact that you tend to see more of what you are focused on:
Google says:
Results 1 - 100 of about 257,000 for AVR microcontroller. (0.53 seconds)
Results 1 - 100 of about 541,000 for PIC microcontroller. (0.43 seconds)
Judging from that, Microchips PICs have more than double the "knowledge and support base"
Personally, I prefer PICs, but I allways advice people to use what THEY are most comfortable with, what they perhaps have tools and equipment for, what they can wrap their brain around etc. rather than push my personal choices down their throat.
I am so sick of the "religion" lots of people put into microcontrollers as there is not one best controller, but one that's best for the job at hand (best being judged on the above criterias as well as the actual demands of the solution).
For a good many years, Microchip has poured out ingenious controllers, Like eg. the DSPic and the worlds smallest controllers the PIC10F-series. I don't see quite the same on the AVR core.
Aside from those two contenders, there are a bunch of other worthy families, but it can be expensive if you wanna have the equipment for each core and sadly Fairchild nixed their very small size (and low power) controllers, shortly after I got a lot of development gear for it of course
And
that is coming from a guy who has used both PICs and AVRs, as well as oodles of other cores, starting back in the seventies with 8080s and the COSMAC processor.
There is a proverb: "For the guy who's only got a hammer, every problem looks like a nail"
Nail 'em, screw 'em, bolt 'em and woo 'em... Don't confine yourself to a corner when there's an entire ballroom!
robotcyYou should read about a few of the processors and use what you feel comfortable with.
PicAxe and BASIC Stamp are both based on the Microchip PIC, both are expensive compared to the bare PIC and both contains an interpreter which interprets your written code to machine code.
You'll get much faster execution speed by using a compiler, which translates your code to machine code before it's entered into the controller.
Your best approach will be to search the net for a couple of projects that is close to what you'd like your robot should be and go with the one that you find the most instructive and easy to follow - then use whatever controller is used in that project.
