Arduino?

The Arduino platform started out as a project to make affordable micro-controllers for a college class. The creators soon realized it's potential and set out looking for investors. Once found they began work on a production model which was soon to be mass-produced and shipped out to hobby stores where it was to be assembled by the end-user. After selling out as quickly as it did, the Arduino evolved and adapted to better fit the market. It was initially created for hobbyists and artists but was soon being used to build robots and automated systems. The Arduino evolved into the Uno which is now widely used. The board ships fully assembled and features PWM pins, Analog pins, Digital pins, I2C connections, Serial connections, and more.


Arduino is an Open-source Open-hardware micro-controller. It runs on a stripped down version of the C programming language which creates a much easier, beginner friendly programming environment. The programming environment is built specifically for the Arduino platform which makes for a much better experience thanks to all of the included software libraries and the vast number of tutorials. Because the hardware is open-sourced, that means that anyone can add to the design and make it better while still remaining cheap. It also means that it is easy to find extensions to the hardware such as wireless adapters. These hardware extensions are also known as "shields" and can be stacked to form complex systems.