Not sure which Arduino to pick
NodeBots does external control of Arduino with Java Script. The controlling computer is a PC or a SOC like Raspberry PI. (Eventually Raspberry can run NodeBots without Arduino.)

For NodeBots, Arduino board runs a firmware called Firmata which executes the commands sent by the Johnny-Five Java Script firmata master library.

I would recommend you to learn C++ and Arduino functions and libraries and code the Arduino directly without Firmata and a controlling computer.