The Kniwwelino hardware is the first micro-controller development platform entirely designed for children attending fundamental schools and “maisons relais” in Luxembourg. The name Kniwwelino is a composition of the luxembourgish word "kniwweln", that means to craft something, "ino"should show the deep affinity to the Arduino ecosystem and finally "Lino"as a name has a relation to lion, which is the heraldic animal of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

As we are on a early stage of the project that develops the Kniwwelino, we will fall back to the ability to program it with Arduino. In the final version the programming will be done with a visual programming tool in the browser. The resulting programs can than be uploaded to the Kniwwelino over the Internet. For programming beginners a website will provide project and programming examples to be directly used or to be the starting point for first code modifications. After learning step-by-step the basics to programming the Kniwwelino the children can express their own creativity by implementing own ideas.

The Kniwwelino hardware consists of a 5x5 LEDs matrix, a RGB LED and two push buttons. There are additional ports that can be used to extend the board by additional sensors and other peripherals. The underlaying micro-controller platform is also embedding a Wi-Fi stack. That enables the Kniwwelino to connect itself to other Kniwwelinos over the Internet. By implementing standard IoT message protocols, like MQTT it could be easily be integrated in existing IoT installations. The small size of the printed circuit board makes it possible to embed the Kniwwelino in nearly every crafted enclosure or object to not limit the development of the child's creativity.