I was wondering if any of the sages on this list might have some advice for what microcontroller to use for a research project I am starting.
The project is process control. The system is an arc welding setup with a sensor for measuring the penetration depth on-line. The sensor operates at 20 Hz maximum (probably about 10 Hz will be used, it depends on the hardware for the sensor I will be using). It will have to interface to the welder by means of digital and analog signals. This part seems fairly straightforward for any general purpose microcontroller. The part that concerns me is the computational power required for a somewhat sophisticated control algorithm. I am proficient with the HC11 and am familiar with PICs.
My question is if the HC11 can handle performing computation required for a transfer function or state space based controller. I know this is a difficult question to answer without knowing the order of the controller to be used, but I need to decide on a microcontroller before I can perform system identification and controller design. Basically, I want to have a system that can be flexible enough so I am not too limited when it comes time to implement a controller, possibly even an adaptive controller, but that remains to be seen.
I know my specifications are quite vague, and I may need to investigate more, but I was hoping someone might have gone through a similar process before and lend some words of wisdom.
Thanks,
Matt Rogge