Do you have a design plan?

Work on the specification part first, the number of inputs and outputs, the type of sensors, transducers and actuators etc. Make a block diagram and work on smaller parts, subsystems of it one by one. Only then decide the actual Bill of Material (the hardware used)

As for the programming language, its your preference, but I suggest you use a good C compiler, it would be better for you right up.

girish