Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the
Arduino programming language (based on
Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on
Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing,
MaxMSP).