Workshoplesson1

There are many complete documentations online about the Arduino platform and what it is, for instance here by SparkFun or by the creators of Arduino.

Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. 
Arduino boards are able to read inputs - light on a sensor, a finger on a   button, 
or a Twitter message - and turn it into an output - activating a motor, turning on an LED, 
publishing something online. You can tell your board what to do by
sending a set of instructions to the microcontroller on the board. 
To do so you use the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring), 
and the Arduino Software (IDE),  based on Processing.

Arduino is an easy platform to interface with sensors and actuators.

In this example an ultrasonic sensor is hooked up to an Arduino that allows it to measure distance while an LCD screen is used to communicate this distance back to the user.

400px