Robustness and long term reliability of Arduino boards and AVR chips

It depends on what kind of environment you have in mind. Running on my desk flashing LEDs the Arduino is perfectly reliable and robust. But it is certainly not built to withstand an industrial or laboratory environment. There is almost no protection circuitry, so the processor and anything connected to it can be killed by a glitch or a short. The connectors would not stand up to knocks, vibration, or any mechanical stress.