Smart home safety and security systems have gained much importance over the last few years owing to their notable impact in reducing and preventing losses in resources and human life caused by unwanted situations that could occur while homeowners are far away from their homes. To date, there is a lack of an in-depth literature analysis that could help researchers and developers better understand these systems and their applications in different contexts. It is therefore crucial that research evidence published in this area is presented. In this study, 63 research papers that examined smart home safety and security systems using the Arduino platform from popular literature databases were thoroughly surveyed to extract useful data. Then, the extracted data were analyzed to answer many research questions concerning state-ofthe-art applications of these systems, their architectures, their enabling technologies, their components, etc. In addition, several challenges that these systems currently face and how future research could enable better implementation and use of these systems were discussed. INDEX TERMS Arduino, smart homes, safety systems, security systems, sensors and actuators, architectures, enabling technologies.