I am not up on the basic stamps (SX,propeller), been several years ago that I last played with them. Do they have ADC (Analog Digital Converter) now?

If you go with something like the 18F4550 you have 13 ADCs and it can run at 48Mhz with a 4Mhz external OSC.

Language --- C, ASM, a flavor of Basic??? Of course I am in favor of PBP. It is pretty much bullet proof and the support can not be beat.

How to make an algorithm for automation??? I suppose everyone has their methods but I will study how a human does the task (a large part of my work is automating existing machinery) and go from there. If I find something to make it all more efficient but not something that the humans are doing for whatever reason (360 viewing ?) I will consider a change in the procedure.

It will be interesting to see what the students come up with...