Planet Arduino

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we interact with people, things, and the world around us. We’re calling on the community to use an Arduino Nano or MKR board to build solutions that can help us practice better social distancing, improve queue management, or enable touch-free technologies.

Stepping out from our homes, to go to schools, factories, offices and pursue leisure pastimes all these will need to change as lockdown restrictions are eased. With terms like social distancing, remote learning and remote working becoming the norm, let’s see how your ideas can help the world move forward and rebuild everyday life based on a project in one of these two categories.

Category 1: Touch-Free

Create a solution that can be applied to devices that currently rely upon manually pushing a button e.g. elevators, pedestrian crossings, door entry systems, sanitizer dispensers, etc.

Category 2: Social Distance Enablement and Tracking

Create a solution that will allow individuals to maintain the recommended distance apart (1m to 2m) to safely work in the office, factory, commute to work on public transport, or socially interact in cafes and parks. The time people spend within close proximity to each other may also be a factor considered within the design.

N.B. The purpose of the competition is to create products and solutions that are ready to help people around the world to move forward with their lives and safely emerge from lockdown restrictions, rather than developing medical devices.

Contest Scope and Schedule

As any potential solution may be required to operate in a variety of environments, important factors to consider as part of the design process are reliability, durability, connectivity, and power management — hence the option to base your project on any Arduino Nano or MKR board.

The Arduino MKR Family represents the ideal solution for emerging battery powered IoT edge applications. All of the MKR boards share a common pinout for developers to easily shift between wireless communication protocols with minimal software changes, and in a cost efficient manner.

The Arduino Nano Family offers a tiny format, powerful processors and excellent reliability. All of the Nano boards can run embedded machine learning (AI).

The challenge is organized in two phases:

Phase 1: Apply for hardware — Deadline June 16th, 2020: Submit your idea and have the opportunity to receive a free Arduino MKR WiFi 1010.

Phase 2: Submit your project — Deadline July 14th, 2020: Submit your project for a chance to win up to $10,000 worth of prizes!

Prizes

We are giving away tens of thousands of dollars in prizes to the top five projects, including product assessment and marketing support to bring your project to market! Our judges are going to pick the best qualifying projects based on the judging criteria outlined in the rules section.

Grand Prize

$5,000 voucher for hardware on the Newark online store
$750 of pre-manufacturing assessment with Dragon Innovation
$5,000 towards product marketing with Hackster.io

Touch-Free

1st Place — Touch-Free

$1,500 voucher for hardware on the Newark online store
$750 of pre-manufacturing assessment with Dragon Innovation
$3,000 towards product marketing with Hackster.io

2nd Place — Touch-Free

$500 voucher for hardware on the Newark online store
$750 of pre-manufacturing assessment with Dragon Innovation
$2,000 towards product marketing with Hackster.io

Social Distance Enablement & Tracking

1st Place — Social Distance Enablement & Tracking

$1,500 voucher for hardware on the Newark online store
$750 of pre-manufacturing assessment with Dragon Innovation
$3,000 towards product marketing with Hackster.io

2nd Place — Social Distance Enablement & Tracking

$500 voucher for hardware on the Newark online store
$750 of pre-manufacturing assessment with Dragon Innovation
$2,000 towards product marketing with Hackster.io

How will you help change the world? Join the contest now!

We at Arduino believe that the combination of our technology and your passion make it possible to have an impact on everyone’s everyday life. Ingenuity, innovation, and social good are the cornerstones of our community, and we want to celebrate those traits with a contest whose winners will be announced on Arduino Day.

The Arduino Day Community Challenge aims to award the best community projects that can have a lasting effect on some or all of us. Seven winning entries will be selected, one in each of the following categories:

• Social innovation
• Kids and education
• Home automation
• Environment & space
• Robotics
• Audio and visual arts
• Small scale manufacturing and startups

Prizes include boards, hardware, and other goodies valued up to €1,000. If you want to apply, please fill out this form by March 3rd. Aside from a description, you will need to upload a photo or video of your work. The winners will be revealed on Arduino Day during the live stream from our official celebration in Milan.

And remember: we are seeking inspirational, problem-solving projects that represent the core values of Arduino Day and can improve the lives of others! Let’s make a difference, together.

Earlier this year, Distrelec launched an Automation & Robotics Contest that invited our community to help advance Industry 4.0 leveraging the Arduino ecosystem. Submissions were required to use Arduino hardware—ranging from WiFi (MKR1000 and Yún Rev2) to GSM/narrowband (MKR FOX 1200, MKR WAN 1300, and MKR GSM 1400) to feature-rich boards like the popular Mega and Due—along with Arduino Create to set up, control, and connect their devices.

Fast forward five months and the winning entries have now been selected, with the top project receiving a Keithley DMM6500 Bench Top Multimeter and a trip to Maker Faire Rome to showcase their work. Other prizes included a Weller WT1010 Set (2nd place) and Grove Starter Kits for Arduino (3rd-10th).

So without further ado, let’s take a look at the winners!

1st Place: Arduino Data Glasses for My Multimeter

2nd Place: Industrial Line Follower for Supplying Materials

Runner-Up: Accessibility Controls for Droids

Runner-Up: Skating Robot  

Runner-Up: Autonomous Home Assistant Robot

Runner-Up: Object Avoiding FSM Robot Arm

Runner-Up: Automatic Monorail Control

Runner-Up: Smart Crops: Implementing IoT in Conventional Agriculture

Runner-Up: Building a Sensor Network for an 18th Century Gristmill

Runner-Up: Robot Arm Controlled Through Ethernet

Congratulations to everyone! Be sure to also check out the contest page to browse through several other projects, such as an IoT platform for vehicles, a universal CNC machine, a gesture-controlled robotic arm, and more!

How can you help advance Industry 4.0 using the Arduino ecosystem? From robots and predictive maintenance to remote control and data acquisition, we’ve teamed up Distrelec to launch a new Automation & Robotics Contest challenging our community to create innovative solutions that can make the industry faster, cheaper, more flexible, and efficient.

Participants are required to tap into our extensive range of IoT boards like the MKR1000 WiFi and MKR GSM 1400, libraries, and online platform to bring their ideas to life. Industrial automation projects could target energy management, remote monitoring, machine safety, or predictive maintenance, for example, using Arduino Create to set up, control, and connect your Arduino, Intel, and Arm-based devices. Robotics projects could include designs for surveillance drones, robotic arms, rovers, or autonomous transportation, leveraging feature-rich boards like the Mega and Due to prototype advanced systems. 

How to Enter

• Create a free account on Arduino.cc (or log in if already a member).
• Register for the contest by clicking “Register as a participant.”
• Send your concept to the Arduino/Distrelec: Automation & Robotics Contest by June 29, 2018. The top 150 makers will receive a coupon for Distrelec online store. Moreover, there will be a series of micro contests, with weekly prizes handed out from Distrelec.
• Design, build, and submit your project by September 16, 2018. Winning projects will be selected based on their originality, quality, creativity, and social impact. 

Prizes

• 1st Place: Keithley DMM6500 Bench Top Multimeter and a trip to Maker Faire Rome 
• 2nd Place: Weller WT1010 Set: WT1 Soldering Station, WTP90 Soldering Iron, Safety Rest 200, XNT A Soldering Tip
• 3rd-10th Place: Grove Starter Kit for Arduino

Ready to get started? You can find more information on the contest here and browse Distrelec’s entire Arduino lineup on their website. To submit your ideas, please visit the Arduino Project Hub. And remember, projects must use an Arduino board in order to be eligible to win!

GridConnect has added a $50 Coupon to the Fun with Arduino Contest.  The coupon can be used on any item! Grid Connect (formerly Synergetic / Lantronix) has been a leader in the embedded and networking marketplace for more than 15 years.

Submit your Arduino project today!

ShapeWays.com has added a $50.00 Coupon to the ArduinoFun – Build It- contest! Have you ever wanted to turn your 3D designs into reality? Enter Shapeways! Just upload your design, we print it and ship it to you – it’s easy. Within ten working days you’ll hold your own design in your hands.

But that’s not all – we’re offering you everything you need to meet fellow Shapeways users, share your work and find inspiration.

We’re using a technique called ‘3D Printing’ which has proven itself as a high-quality production technique, but up to now has always been very expensive. By creating a large community we are able to produce much cheaper, meaning better prices for you.

Enter your Arduino project today!

Prizes:

• 1st place winner will receive an Arduino Mega and a $50.00 Coupon for ShapeWays.com
• 2nd place winner will receive an Arduino Pro Mini 328 – 3.3V/8MHz
• 3rd place winner will receive an Arduino Screw Shield