There are many Arduino-compatible microcontroller boards nowadays. The Ruggeduino is a ruggedized Arduino-compatible microcontroller board. Features include overcurrent and overvoltage protection on all I/O pins and 5V/3.3V outputs, ESD protection on all I/O pins and USB port, total microcontroller overcurrent protection, and operation at up to 24V.
There are some things a regular Arduino will tolerate; other actions will destroy it immediately. The Ruggeduino designers took all the common mistakes that people make with their Arduinos and designed the Ruggeduino to protect against them. The Ruggeduino web page has lots of technical details how the protection is implemented.
I have not personal experience in this The Ruggeduino product, but looks interesting. And the technical details how protection is implemented could be useful in some other application some day.
