Best Microcontroller for Low-Power IoT Applications with Real-Time Data Processing (robotic arm)

[Jane Will]

Hi everyone,

I’m a research student working on an IoT project that requires real-time data processing with low power consumption. I’m looking for a microcontroller that supports wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi or BLE), has efficient power management, and can handle sensor data processing.

• Would the ESP32 be sufficient, or are there better alternatives for low-power IoT applications?
• How important is using an RTOS for managing multiple tasks in such projects?
• Any suggestions for development tools or platforms that streamline IoT prototyping?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

 

[KlausST]

Hi,

Wi-Fi or BLE

the power demand between WiFi and BLE differs significantly. depending on ON time and data transer .. it could be a facor of 100.
It seems you did no reseaarch on your own. You want us to do this for you . This is neither fair nor are we your workers.
A forum is not meant to do others work. It is meant that we help ... but still you have to do the main job .. and ask us for some detailes you are unsure.
We like to help.

has efficient power management

same here. You have to elaborate on this. What power states do you see with which timing. You need to draw diagrams. First we expect you to do this job, especially we can´t know these informations. It makes a big difference whether you need sensor data for an earthquake movement with hundreds of samples each second or you want to monitor the movement of the two foundations of a bridge ... so maybe once per day.

and can handle sensor data processing.

same here. Is it a high resolution 3D sensor with a huge data amount (maybe 1 million data points need to be processed wihtin milliseconds) ... or a simple PT100 (with maybe just 1 single data pint every minute)

Power consumption wise it makes a big difference which sensor you use and whether the sensor continously needs to be active .. or can be switched OFF 99% of the time.

Would the ESP32 be sufficient,

An ESP32 may contain dual core 32 bit processor with 240 MHz system clock each. No very flexible power saving options.
Is it sufficient? How can we know? It provides a lot of processing power ... but has not the best real time DSP instruction set.
Due to the huge processing power .. it obviously consumes a lot of power.

It´s also a question of "what" data you want to send via the wireless interface. It can be a single integer 16 bit value each hour, it also can be a high resolution 2D colored picture, it also can be an HTML page (simple or complex) transferred to each client (maybe thousands of clients spread over the whole world)

How important is using an RTOS

RTOS or not is the choice of the programming person and the demand of the application.
We simply can not answer this. .. especially not without any useful information from your side.

Depending on application .. you may use a low power MSP430 and an external BLE module ... and a low UP_time rate ... and may consume less than a milliwatt in average.
Or you use an ESP32 with continous sending data via WiFi and draw more than 1000 times the power. It´s a huge range.

*****
Power consumption, data rates, packet size, sensor count, sample rate .. are values measurement with numbers (and units).
Check on your own: The only number we see in your post is the "32" of the ESP32 ...
Thus basically we have zero information about your application we can calculate with. Zero.

So .. before we can help you ... you need to do your job and decide all your application informations.

Klaus

 

[ahsrabrifat]

Hi everyone,

I’m a research student working on an IoT project that requires real-time data processing with low power consumption. I’m looking for a microcontroller that supports wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi or BLE), has efficient power management, and can handle sensor data processing.

• Would the ESP32 be sufficient, or are there better alternatives for low-power IoT applications?
• How important is using an RTOS for managing multiple tasks in such projects?
• Any suggestions for development tools or platforms that streamline IoT prototyping?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

ESP32 is widely used in IOT projects. However, it has some shortcomings.
ESP32 consumes more power in active mode than ultra-low-power MCUs like Nordic or STM32-based solutions. If your project doesn't need dual-core processing or high-speed connectivity, a simpler MCU may be better. sometimes, depending on your applications, you may need to use two boards simultaneously for a single project. Here is a good example:

https://www.pcbway.com/blog/16/Buil...__ESP8266___Apache_Mynewt___thethings_io.html

RTOS Simplifies multi-threaded applications, Reduces blocking delays and Helps in low-power management. If your project involves real-time sensor data processing, wireless communication, and power-efficient operation, an RTOS (Real-Time Operating System) is highly beneficial.

 

[Jane Will]

Hi,


the power demand between WiFi and BLE differs significantly. depending on ON time and data transer .. it could be a facor of 100.
It seems you did no reseaarch on your own. You want us to do this for you . This is neither fair nor are we your workers.
A forum is not meant to do others work. It is meant that we help ... but still you have to do the main job .. and ask us for some detailes you are unsure.
We like to help.


same here. You have to elaborate on this. What power states do you see with which timing. You need to draw diagrams. First we expect you to do this job, especially we can´t know these informations. It makes a big difference whether you need sensor data for an earthquake movement with hundreds of samples each second or you want to monitor the movement of the two foundations of a bridge ... so maybe once per day.


same here. Is it a high resolution 3D sensor with a huge data amount (maybe 1 million data points need to be processed wihtin milliseconds) ... or a simple PT100 (with maybe just 1 single data pint every minute)

Power consumption wise it makes a big difference which sensor you use and whether the sensor continously needs to be active .. or can be switched OFF 99% of the time.


An ESP32 may contain dual core 32 bit processor with 240 MHz system clock each. No very flexible power saving options.
Is it sufficient? How can we know? It provides a lot of processing power ... but has not the best real time DSP instruction set.
Due to the huge processing power .. it obviously consumes a lot of power.

It´s also a question of "what" data you want to send via the wireless interface. It can be a single integer 16 bit value each hour, it also can be a high resolution 2D colored picture, it also can be an HTML page (simple or complex) transferred to each client (maybe thousands of clients spread over the whole world)


RTOS or not is the choice of the programming person and the demand of the application.
We simply can not answer this. .. especially not without any useful information from your side.

Depending on application .. you may use a low power MSP430 and an external BLE module ... and a low UP_time rate ... and may consume less than a milliwatt in average.
Or you use an ESP32 with continous sending data via WiFi and draw more than 1000 times the power. It´s a huge range.

*****
Power consumption, data rates, packet size, sensor count, sample rate .. are values measurement with numbers (and units).
Check on your own: The only number we see in your post is the "32" of the ESP32 ...
Thus basically we have zero information about your application we can calculate with. Zero.

So .. before we can help you ... you need to do your job and decide all your application informations.

Klaus

Thank you for the detailed feedback and for pointing out the essential factors to consider. I realize I should have provided more specifics about my application. The project involves an IoT-based lightweight robotic arm for pick-and-place tasks with basic position and force sensors. The sensor data is sampled at approximately 50 Hz, with small data packets transmitted intermittently. Power efficiency is crucial since the system is battery-powered, and I plan to implement sleep modes between operations.


I’m exploring whether the ESP32, with its built-in Wi-Fi/BLE and dual-core processing, can balance power consumption and processing needs. BLE seems more suitable for the small data payloads and low duty cycle. Regarding task management, would using an RTOS offer significant advantages over a bare-metal approach for handling sensor data processing and wireless communication in this context?


I appreciate your thorough insights and welcome any suggestions on improving the system’s efficiency. Thanks again for your guidance!

 

[KlausST]

Hi,

not a single number ..

oh wait: 50Hz
That´s all we can use.

Klaus