I have no experience with embedded systems hardware and am looking to build a micro-budget underwater robot for exploring the bottom of a lake on the family homestead. I don't have much money to spend on this, but I want to run Debian Linux (I have lots of Linux Admin experience and am right at home with a terminal) or something like that on a small chip which needs to be able to:
- Connect to the control computer via ethernet.
- Get digital or analog data from a GPS module, pressure sensor, etc.
- Control a few thrusters.
- Do various other hardware IO functions.
- Possibly control a robotic arm (this is a long shot, I know).
- Hopefully monitor its internal temperature.
And costs less than about 100 dollars. I have no experience with embedded systems hardware so I really don't know what to buy or where to start, aside from the fact that I heard that this would be a good place for something ARM-related. I am a software developer with time to burn as far as writing the programs to support this goes.
The lake has an area of about 2 acres and is <25 feet at its deepest if this makes any difference.