Arduino - Arduino-compatible Boards

Arduino-compatible Boards

There are a great many Arduino-compatible and Arduino-derived boards. Some are functionally equivalent to an Arduino and may be used interchangeably. Many are the basic Arduino with the addition of commonplace output drivers, often for use in school-level education to simplify the construction of buggies and small robots. Others are electrically equivalent but change the form factor, sometimes permitting the continued use of Shields, sometimes not. Some variants even use completely different processors, with varying levels of compatibility.

Although the hardware and software designs are freely available under copyleft licenses, the developers have requested that the name "Arduino" be exclusive to the official product and not be used for derivative works without permission. The official policy document on the use of the Arduino name emphasizes that the project is open to incorporating work by others into the official product. Several Arduino-compatible products commercially released have avoided the "Arduino" name by using "-duino" name variants.