1. Introduction

Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino boards are able to read inputs (e.g. a finger on a button or a Twitter message) and can turn them into an output (e.g. activating a motor, or publishing something online). You can tell your board what to do by sending a set of instructions to the microcontroller on the board.

All Arduino boards are completely open-source, empowering users to build them independently and eventually adapt them to their particular needs. The software, too, is open-source, and it is growing through the contributions of users worldwide.

Thanks to its simple and accessible user experience, Arduino has been used in thousands of different projects and applications. The Arduino software is easy-to-use for beginners, yet flexible enough for advanced users. It runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. (Source: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Introduction)

Fig. 1.4 Arduino Uno (Source: https://store.arduino.cc/arduino-uno-rev3)

The following course provides you with basic understandings of microcontrollers using Arduino as application example. Furthermore, a short introduction in C programming is provided.