Arduino is an open source user-friendly electronics platform for building digital devices and interactive objects that can sense and control physical devices.

Arduino is based on micro-controller designs and it provides sets of digital and analog input/output(I/O) pins,which can interface between various expansion boards and other circuits.It has 14 digital input/output pins of which 6 can be used as PWM ( Pulse Width Modulation) outputs, 6 analog input pins, 3 GND (ground pins), 1 Vin , a 5V pin, a 3.3V pin, a 16 MHZ ceramic resonator, a USB connection , an ICSP header  and a reset button.

( All these pin numbers may vary from board to board. Here I’ve given a description about Arduino UNO                     ATMEGA 328p-pu ).

Arduino UNO R3

                         Arduino UNO R3.

This board feature Serial Communication interfaces, including Universal Serial Communication (USB) on some models for uploading programs from ones personal computer or laptop.

For programming the micro-controllers , the Arduino project provides an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) based on a programming language named processing which is an open source computer programming language and IDE built for the electronic arts, media arts and visual design. Arduino board also supports C and C++ languages.

Arduino boards are able to read Inputs- light on sensor, IR sensor, Ultrasonic sensor, a finger on  a button, or a Twitter message and turn it into an Output – activating a motor, turning on a LED, sensing an object etc.

Over the years Arduino has become the brain of thousands of projects, from a very simple everyday appliances to a freakish scientific gadgets .