RoboGarden

(cooler than your average garden)

Name of Invention:

 RoboGarden

Inventors: 

 Sule, Jasmin, Maynard, and Ope

Problem Statement: 

Wouldn't you want to watch your strawberries or flowers grow right next to you? Wouldn't you like for your house to be re-oxygenated every time because the plants you have replenish it? There is only one solution... RoboGarden! 

Project Description: 

Our RoboGarden waters and provides light for your plants. The plants are watered and lighted to help them grow. RoboGarden also comes with an extension plug which makes it easier to light the plant at night so that your plants grow even without daylight. Also the humidity sensor helps trigger the water pumps so that when your plant is dry, the water is pumped through the pipes into the plants.

Sketch

(*Arduino)

 Technologies and Modules: 

• Arduino
• Shop Bot
• Fab Lab
• Gimp

Materials:

• For the humidity sensors, we need: 

 Wires, gypsum plaster, or any other material that absorbs water. 

• Temperature sensor, we need a thermistor
• Fluorescent light
• LED's
• Chive Flowers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chives
• Plant bags
• Pipes (little ones)
• Water pump..if we were to make it: http://www.instructables.com/id/Non-moving-parts-water-pump/
  
• A crate or box (to basically put the plants in)
• Aluminum Foil 
• On and off button
• Hex Keys
• Laser Cutter
• Wrenches
• Screwdrivers 

These are your little chive dude pals, they inspire us to be the best gardeners for them and their families. With out us they will all die.

History of inventions like ours:

Another project that is similar to our project is the robot gardener, similar to what ours sound like; the Robot gardener was developed by college students in Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This sophisticated device harvest your garden for you. However the are a few different things that make this project different from ours.  one is  that it posses a robotic arm that is equipped with a  camera and a flat gripper, and the other is that it only harvest one kind of plants instead a variety of them. what makes our project unique is that it plants a variety of indoor plants, and it indicates us the temperature of the plant's environment and the soils dryness level. Another project that was also similar to ours was the Garduino Garden Controller. This project is a lot like ours, the only difference is that this project uses a photo resistor that changes the resistance due to light intensity. so theirs save more energy than ours. and lastly the multiple flow hydroponic systems, this significant device was manufactured since 1992 and yet again this is also equivalent to ours. The system has individual containers that carries plants that is linked with tubes that is connected to the bottom. the pump ( like the one we have) flows water from the tube into the plants.  compared to the hydroponic system, ours is a lot better because ours uses sensors to tell us when the plant needs more water and the temperature of the plants environment.  

Pros:

• All you have to do is plant the seed
• The robot does the rest of the work for you.
• You can go on vacation without having to worry about taking are of your garden.
• Good for the environment.
• Cleans the air in your room

Cons:

• If your not careful you may be electrocuted due to the water and electricity. 
• You have to be delicate
• It takes more energy because you have to plug it in.
• You can't move the RoboGarden around

Problems: What about when it rains?

They are for indoors so rain doesn't affect it. it's meant for the windowsill.

Creating the humidity sensor:

References:

http://www.gogoboard.org/cocoon/gogosite/documentation/makingSensors.xsp?lang=en
http://www.instructables.com/id/Garduino-Gardening-Arduino/

http://www.ehow.com/how_5016689_build-simple-water-pump.html

http://www.hydroponics.net/

http://cm.cdn.fm/fakeup/dow-make/cmweb/entry_assets/MAKE18_Garduino_brnd.pdf

http://people.csail.mit.edu/nikolaus/drg/

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2639542

Sheet Metal 

Daily Progress:

Daily Progress-ROBO Garder