A microcontroller is usually targeted toward a single or specific process, while a microprocessor is targeted toward running multiple processes at a time. This is possible because a microprocessor runs an OS that allows multiple processes to run at the same time, whereas microcontrollers run bare-metal (without an OS). In robotics, microcontrollers are usually used to control the actuators via a motor driver circuit or to communicate sensor information back into the system.

A microprocessor could typically do both at the same time, making the application look realtime. Microcontrollers are less expensive than microprocessors and, at times, are much faster than processors. However, microprocessors can run heavy computations that are required in applications such as image processing or model-training, unlike microcontrollers. Robots usually constitute a combination of both microcontroller and microprocessor systems because they are comprised of multiple blocks that are responsible for specific functionalities. This combination would lead to a simple robot-agnostic, modular, efficient, and fail-safe solution.