Project
# | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
5 | Auto-Adjustable Micro-Terrarium |
Colin Lu Joyce Hu Robert Vitek |
Shaoyu Meng | design_document1.pdf final_paper2.pdf other1.pdf proposal1.pdf |
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Team Members: Colin Lu, Robert Vitek, Joyce Hu (colinlu2, rvitek2, xhu43) Problem Statement: Plant growth is greatly affected by the environment, and a non-ideal environment can limit the plant’s growth rate. Our proposed solution is to create a programmable micro-terrarium that can assist novice gardeners in growing plants under regulated conditions. Solution Overview: We will design and build an adjustable terrarium that can determine the current conditions of the environment and can self adjust or use manual input to regulate the environment. We were able to identify a few adjustable terrariums online but none tackle the problem of pH, and they are too large, not scalable for a wide variety of plants, or designed for industrial purposes and experienced botanists. This is a non-exhaustive list of some existing products we found online: - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/416958328/smartterra-a-smart-terrarium-with-customizable-env - https://www.orchidbox.io/ - https://www.biopod.com/ Solution Components: - Sensors to detect humidity, pH, and temperature. (pH probe sensor, temperature sensor, and humidity sensor) - Microcontroller to adjust the terrarium (Arduino will perform a calculation process based on the analog signal from the sensor and display the condition for the user. The users can monitor the results and decide to manually adjust or not) - Control valves hold water and nutrients to adjust the humidity and soil’s pH level based on the solution provided by the microcontroller. - The valves will release nutrients and water depending on inputs from the sensors. - The terrarium container should fit a 6” x 6” base and 12” height. Criterion for Success: The terrarium should take certain amounts of time to self-adjust: - A maximum time of five minutes to adjust lighting - A maximum time of five minutes to adjust the temperature - A maximum time of one hour to adjust humidity - A maximum time of twenty-four hours to adjust pH of soil - The terrarium should fit the above dimensions. Plans for the special condition: If one groupmate tests positive for COVID-19, that person will focus on documentation if his/her condition is minor. Otherwise, the remaining groupmates will continue to work until the member fully recovers and may rejoin the team. And the project can be properly simplified depends on the condition. If the University must cease in-person classes and restrict campus access, one group member will bring the hardware home to gather data so that the other members may analyze the data, work on simulations, and help the sole groupmate complete the physical product remotely. |