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Embedded AI

Embedded AI

A Practical Guide to Building Intelligence on Microcontrollers
by David Such
October 2026, 600 pp.
ISBN-13: 
9781718504905

If you already know your way around a microcontroller and want to add embedded AI to it—or you work in ML and you're ready to get your hands on real hardware—this book is for you. It covers the full embedded AI stack, from circuit design and custom PCB fabrication through sensor fusion and signal processing to on-device inference.

You'll learn how to wire the sensor, condition the signal, fuse IMU data using complementary filters, Madgwick, Mahony, and Kalman filters, deploy decision trees that run inside the sensor itself, and figure out why your tensor arena is the wrong size. Along the way, you'll tackle exploratory data analysis, model quantization, and the debugging realities that documentation never mentions—like what to do when the firmware uploader is fragile and your breadboard connections are dodgy.

Working on Arduino (UNO R3 and R4, Nano 33 BLE Sense, Nicla Vision, Nicla Voice), Raspberry Pi Pico 2, and ST evaluation boards, you'll build 25 complete projects, including:

  • Signal generator using PIO and DMA on the Raspberry Pi Pico
  • Battery state-of-charge prediction with Gaussian Process Regression
  • Person detection using CNNs on the Nicla Vision
  • Orientation detection using finite state machines running on-sensor
  • Sensor fusion filter comparison across four IMUs with static angle testing
  • Robot arm anomaly detection with decision trees on the ISM330BX machine learning core
  • Real-time audio noise suppression using a GRU neural network on the Pico 2
  • AI MIDI synthesizer with GAN-generated music, capacitive touch keyboard, VS1053b hardware synth, and procedural composition with Markov chains--all on custom PCBs
  • Hot word detection on the Nicla Voice using Edge Impulse
  • Battery monitor and logging shield with BQ24075 charger, fuel gauge, and programmable discharge load

Five custom PCBs are designed and built across the projects, with Gerber files and schematics provided. All code and hardware designs are open source under the MIT License.

This is embedded AI as a complete engineering discipline—sensors, circuits, signal processing, machine learning, and firmware—not a software shortcut.

Author Bio 

David Such is an embedded systems engineer and founder of Reefwing Software, where he builds IoT devices, robotics platforms, and drone flight control systems. He has over 30 years of experience in embedded development, including senior roles at Serco Australia, Honeywell, and Tyco. His technical writing on embedded AI has a substantial following among hardware engineers working at the edge.

Table of contents 

Introduction

PART I: FOUNDATIONS OF EMBEDDED AI
Chapter 1: Path to Embedded AI
Chapter 2: The Basics of Embedded Systems

Chapter 3: Applied Machine Learning in Embedded Projects
Chapter 4: Deep Learning
Chapter 5: Explanatory Data Analysis

PART II: SENSORS, SENSOR DATA, AND ALGORITHMS
Chapter 6: Smart Sensors
Chapter 7: IMU Data Preprocessing
Chapter 8: Sensor Fusion

PART III: PROJECTS AND APPLICATIONS
Chapter 9: Sensor Machine Learning
Chapter 10: Real-Time Audio Noise Suppression
Chapter 11: Build an AI MIDI Synthesizer
Chapter 12: Build a Hot Word Detection
Chapter 13: Build an Arduino Battery Monitor and Logging Shield
Chapter 14: Where Do We Go Next

The chapters in red are included in this Early Access PDF.