Suggestions for MCU/SBC setup for school project

[albinhed]

Hi!

I'm doing a school group project, where we are developing a prototype for a motorized and instrumented exoskeleton that will be used for physiotherapy. It will consist of an actuator at the knee joint with a torque sensor and an encoder. We are also thinking about adding more sensors, like IMUs.

We want to use the sensor data and display it in a presentable way, with charts etc for the physiotherapist. Our idea was to use a Raspberry Pi 5 and host a web server on it and build a web interface. The idea was also to build a control software with ROS2 on Raspberry Pi 5 as a foundation and use the Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller with micro-ROS to handle real-time operations like sensor data collection and actuator control.

Our supervisor told us that we should consider looking for other options for MCU/SBC (he said that the rpi is old), but he also said that he doesn't know the market that well. I have done some quick research and i still think this setup is the best cause it is easy to run a web server on the Pi 5. I have checked on alternative solutions like a arduino portenta h7, but came to the conclusion that it's not ideal because it has limited web server support and limited storage capabilites (we want to be able to store sensor data).

Do you have any suggestions for another MCU/SBC setup we should use? Or is the rpi setup that we already considered the most optimal?

We'll appreciate any help we could get!

 

[Delta Prime]

Our supervisor told us that we should consider looking for other options for MCU/SBC (he said that the rpi is old),

He’s right & made for Third World countries. I was thinking neural networks. But you could probably get away with an STM32 then again that’s even older…

We are also thinking about adding more sensors, like IMUs.

Bravo; you have done your homework & you’re talking my language.
Kinetic&Kinematic Measurements.
Inertial Measurement Units(IMU) force, pressure,displacement,& optical sensors,to gather data, enhancing the performance of “lower-limb exoskeletons”.
Are you trying to win some small victory for humanity?
Or get a passing grade?.
I could help you do both.
But there is also human signal monitoring, along with environmental sensing. capturing & analyzing the user’s physiological signals. Biopotential sensors,such as EMG and EEG sensors
A 32-bit microcontroller STM32 would do nicely.
But you have to remember, IMU’s measure six degrees of freedom movements, accelerations along the three orthogonal directions & rotational velocities along three directions (via a three-axis gyroscope).The signals determine an object’s positions & orientations in the three-dimensional space. IMUs are also equipped with a magnetometer to measure gravitational forces. Each sensor gathers data for the three body axes: roll, pitch, & yaw.
IMUs directly measure linear accelerations & rotational velocities, their output is typically superior to the accelerations & velocities derived from time-based position data.
Unfortunately, this sounds like homework & this is as far as I can take you…

 

[albinhed]

He’s right & made for Third World countries. I was thinking neural networks. But you could probably get away with an STM32 then again that’s even older…

Bravo; you have done your homework & you’re talking my language.
Kinetic&Kinematic Measurements.
Inertial Measurement Units(IMU) force, pressure,displacement,& optical sensors,to gather data, enhancing the performance of “lower-limb exoskeletons”.
Are you trying to win some small victory for humanity?
Or get a passing grade?.
I could help you do both.
But there is also human signal monitoring, along with environmental sensing. capturing & analyzing the user’s physiological signals. Biopotential sensors,such as EMG and EEG sensors
A 32-bit microcontroller STM32 would do nicely.
But you have to remember, IMU’s measure six degrees of freedom movements, accelerations along the three orthogonal directions & rotational velocities along three directions (via a three-axis gyroscope).The signals determine an object’s positions & orientations in the three-dimensional space. IMUs are also equipped with a magnetometer to measure gravitational forces. Each sensor gathers data for the three body axes: roll, pitch, & yaw.
IMUs directly measure linear accelerations & rotational velocities, their output is typically superior to the accelerations & velocities derived from time-based position data.
Unfortunately, this sounds like homework & this is as far as I can take you…

Will the STM32 be able to store sensor data for weeks and host a web server that can display it?

 

[Harald Kapp]

Web server: yes. Plenty of examples out there on the intenet.
WiFi: no. Or at least not without additional hardware. Only LAN, but this also requires additional hardware.
Store data for weeks: Depends on the amount of data you accumulate during this time.

Have a look at e.g. ESP32 modules. These have integrated WiFi and Bluetoth, USB for serial communication and power. Plus there are module type savailable with for example 4 MB FLASH and 8 MB PSRAM (example).
Alternatively modules with SD-card slot are available or use an external SD-card module which can easily be attached to an ESP32.

he said that the rpi is old

Your instructor does not seem to be up to date. The raspberry pi 5 is (almost) brand new. You may also look into a "raspberry Pi zero (2) W" (example) . Comes with WiFi and is less expensive than a full blown Raspberry Pi.

 

[ahsrabrifat]

Hi!

I'm doing a school group project, where we are developing a prototype for a motorized and instrumented exoskeleton that will be used for physiotherapy. It will consist of an actuator at the knee joint with a torque sensor and an encoder. We are also thinking about adding more sensors, like IMUs.

We want to use the sensor data and display it in a presentable way, with charts etc for the physiotherapist. Our idea was to use a Raspberry Pi 5 and host a web server on it and build a web interface. The idea was also to build a control software with ROS2 on Raspberry Pi 5 as a foundation and use the Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller with micro-ROS to handle real-time operations like sensor data collection and actuator control.

Our supervisor told us that we should consider looking for other options for MCU/SBC (he said that the rpi is old), but he also said that he doesn't know the market that well. I have done some quick research and i still think this setup is the best cause it is easy to run a web server on the Pi 5. I have checked on alternative solutions like a arduino portenta h7, but came to the conclusion that it's not ideal because it has limited web server support and limited storage capabilites (we want to be able to store sensor data).

Do you have any suggestions for another MCU/SBC setup we should use? Or is the rpi setup that we already considered the most optimal?

We'll appreciate any help we could get!

If your supervisor agrees, you can think about Jetson Nano. It supports ROS2.