Microcontroller or FPGA

[eltrut]

I am looking to build a cartiesian robot to move an object. The location of an object will be identifed by a camera and robot pick it up and move it somewhere. I am probably going to be using stepper motors and I have a CMU2 camera. Which would be better to use a microcontroller or an FPGA?

 

[narfnarf]

I would suggest using a microcontroller, or even multiple microcontrollers, if you can, because a FPGA is rather difficult to deal with due to its packaging and annoying power supply requirements. FPGA also tend to be more expensive and requires more development time

However, since you are doing some sort of image processing, it may be inevitable to move to a FPGA. This is way beyond my understanding at this point. You might also want to take a look at some DSP processors.

whatever it is, best of luck!

 

[pngzhi]

I also prefer Microcontroller.

 

[siongboon]

I guess microcontroller can be deploy for general task like robot control.
Specialise task that requires speed might be better off as another module using FPGA.

 

[sadid]

and you can use an SOC board with mixing up FPGA and MCU or DSP processor....