In addition to control applications such as the home monitoring system, microcontrollers are frequently found in embedded applications. Among the many uses that you can find one or more microcontrollers: automotive applications, appliances (microwave oven, refrigerators, television and VCRs, stereos), automobiles (engine control, diagnostics, climate control), environmental control (greenhouse, factory, home), instrumentation, aerospace, and thousands of other uses.

Microcontrollers are used extensively in robotics. In this application, many specific tasks might be distributed among a large number of microcontrollers in one system. Communications between each microcontroller and a central, more powerful microcontroller (or microcomputer, or even large computer) would enable information to be processed by the central computer, or to be passed around to other microcontrollers in the system.

A special application that microcontrollers are well suited for is data logging. By stick one of these chips out in the middle of a corn field or up in a balloon, one can monitor and record environmental parameters (temperature, humidity, rain, etc). Small size, low power consumption, and flexibility make these devices ideal for unattended data monitoring and recording.