Building a robotics prototype is a balancing act between innovation, cost, and practicality. The choices made early in component selection can significantly affect not only how quickly you can get a prototype running, but also how easily it transitions to production. Below are five crucial factors I’ve learned the hard way after years of taking robotics systems from prototype to production.
1. Prototype vs Production
Think beyond the prototype.
When selecting components, ask: are these suitable for production too? It’s tempting to grab whatever works fastest to get a proof-of-concept running, but short-term convenience can lead to long-term pain.
If a component’s specifications can’t meet the performance, reliability, or certification requirements of a production system, you may be forced to redesign your hardware or even rewrite firmware later. Sometimes, bespoke interfaces or protective circuitry must be added to make fragile prototype parts robust enough, adding unnecessary complexity and cost.
Whenever possible, choose components that can bridge both stages: rapid prototyping and scalable production.
2. EMI & Signal Integrity
Signal reliability matters more than you think.
Robotics systems often involve motors, switching power supplies, and long cable runs, all of which are notorious sources of electromagnetic interference (EMI). If your devices communicate using non-differential serial protocols (like UART, SPI or I2C), you’re inherently more vulnerable to noise and data corruption. These issues can be intermittent, difficult to reproduce - and worst of all - might only be discovered by your customer once the system is in the field.
You can mitigate this with cable shielding or ferrite beads, but that’s a workaround. A better approach is to start with communication standards designed for noisy environments - like CAN, RS-485, or Ethernet. These differential systems maintain signal integrity even under high EMI, saving you hours of debugging and frustration later.
3. Modularity
Design for change.
A good prototype isn’t just functional, it’s flexible. If every device in your system relies on a one-to-one serial connection with a host processor, your expansion options are severely limited. The host needs as many interfaces as peripherals, and any change in the line-up may require firmware updates or even hardware redesigns. In addition to this, if your choice of host processor ever becomes unavailable, it can be difficult or impossible to find one with the exact same interfaces, processing power and form factor.
Using a networked communication protocol such as CAN or Ethernet allows you to add, remove, or replace nodes with minimal effort. Modularity encourages experimentation and scales better as your system evolves. And if you ever need to replace the host processor, the interfacing requirements are easy to meet - making it much easier to find a replacement.
4. Documentation Quality
Good documentation accelerates development.
When you’re moving fast, documentation can make or break your schedule. Well-documented modules provide clear wiring diagrams, example code, and timing details which save you from reverse-engineering someone else’s design choices.
Before committing to a component, check the quality of its datasheet and community support. Poor documentation often signals poor design practices or hidden quirks that will surface later in integration and testing.
5. Software Integration Complexity
Plug-and-play beats plug-and-pray.
Avoid components that require extensive configuration just to get running. While advanced settings are valuable for optimization, the core functionality should be easy to access out-of-the-box.
A well-designed module should “just work” with minimal setup, enabling you to focus on system behaviour rather than peripheral troubleshooting. Later, when you’re ready to refine performance, the same module should still provide access to deeper configuration options, not lock you into an opaque vendor toolchain.