Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32 | Plant Notification System (Soilmate) |
Emma Hoeger Sigrior Vauhkonen Ysabella Lucero |
Zhuchen Shao | ||
| Plant Notification System (Soilmate) Team Members: - Emma Hoeger (ehoeger2) - Ysabella Lucero(ylucero2) - Sigrior Vauhkonen (sigrior2) # Problem Many house plant owners struggle taking proper care of their plants. It can be difficult to keep track of when to water them and where to keep them, based on their species of plant and stage of life. Since all of them require water at different frequencies and amounts, it’s also easy to forget to water the plants on time and meet their different schedules. # Solution Our solution is to create a notification system to inform houseplant owners of when they should water their different plants. It will also notify the owner of the conditions of the plant based on various sensors. This will be done by creating an app that the owner can download on their phone where they will be able to enter their type of plant. There have been many apps created to act as a reminder to water plants; however, the majority of them rely on a schedule rather than live data gathered from the plant. Also those that do have live data from the plant, do not track the weather. Our app will track where that plant is originally from and use the weather patterns in that area to determine when it should be watered (ie. when it’s raining). In addition, there will be a soil moisture sensor, humidity sensor, light sensor, and temperature sensor. The soil moisture sensor will also alert the owner to water the plant if the moisture is too low, and prevent overwatering of the plant if the moisture is too high. The humidity sensor will alert the owner when humidity is dangerously too high or low for the plant, which is especially useful for tropical plants in a non-tropical environment (many houseplants are of a tropical background). The temperature sensor will alert the owner when the room temperature is not in the optimal range for the specific plant. With the integration of software and hardware subsystems, this effective plant notifying system will make taking care of houseplants easier for both beginner and experienced plant owners. Beginner plant owners will find it easier to learn of and keep track of the demands of their plants, preventing most common mistakes that result in the death of their plants. Many experienced plant owners have upwards of 20 plants, and this notification system would make it much simpler to keep track of when to water them all. # Solution Components - ESP32-C61-DevKitC-1-N8R2 - Moisture Sensor (SEN0114) - Temperature & Humidity Sensor (SHTC3-TR-10KS/9477851) - Light Sensor (BH1750) - ADC Module - 5V DC Converter ## Subsystem 1: App Configuration + Weather Data The app (developed using Flutter/Android Studio) will allow the user to add a plant for monitoring- the user will select the plant species, size, light exposure, and the size of the pot. With this information, using a lookup table that holds information for plant species, the app will store target ranges for soil moisture, temperature, humidity, and light, as well as a “home location” (later used to check weather). In the event that a plant species is unknown to the app (not in the lookup table), the user can manually add this information. Once per day, the app will call a weather API (OpenWeatherMap API) using the “home location” of a plant to check for rain in that region. This will be used as a supplementary factor to the data from the soil moisture sensor, and with this a decision will be made on whether to water the plant or not. If the plant should be watered, a notification will be generated to inform the user. The data from the temperature, light, and humidity sensor will also generate notifications if the temperature and/or humidity is out of the recommended range, informing the user that the environment is too hot or too cold, or too moist or dry. It will give recommendations to either turn down/up the temperature, place plant in a different facing window (north, east, south, west), mist with water if too dry, or open windows if too humid. This will make the app much more beginner plant friendly. ## Subsystem 2: Sensor Subsystem The sensor subsystem will use a resistive moisture sensor (SEN0114), temperature and humidity sensor (SHTC3), and a light sensor (BH1750). All of these sensors except the SEN0114, which requires an ADC module, will use an I2C interface that is compatible with our microcontroller (ESP32). The sensors will send their measurements to the microcontroller to be interpreted and relayed through the app. Our power subsystem will supply the correct voltages to the rated amounts of the sensors. ## Subsystem 3: Microcontroller for Communication We must be able to blend our app configuration with our live sensor subsystem to send an alert. We can do this by using the ESP32 microcontroller. It will provide wifi and bluetooth connectivity for our sensor devices to easily transfer the data to our app. It is cost-effective and has low power consumption which will make it easy to integrate with our design. Furthermore, our group has experience with this microcontroller so we are confident with its capabilities. ## Subsystem 4: Power Subsystem The power subsystem will deliver power to the sensors and microcontroller systems. The ESP32 requires 5V while the temperature, humidity, moisture and light sensors require 3.3V. The 3.3V will come from the LDO on the microcontroller and we will use a 5V USB adaptor to convert the 120V AC from the bench to 5V. # Criterion For Success (Pothos for example) - Accurately gather soil moisture data - 300-700 Ohms optimal for top 2 inches of soil - Accurately gather temperature data - 60 to 80 degrees farenheit - Accurately gather humidity data - 40 to 60% - Accurately gather light data - 1,000 to 3,000 lux - Accurately transfer data from sensors to app via microcontroller - Be able to track weather conditions - Be able to send alerts through app using sensors/weather conditions - Allow user to enter plant species, and size in app - Ensure app can track weather for multiple plant species |
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