Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
32 Plant Notification System (Soilmate)
 Emma Hoeger
Sigrior Vauhkonen
Ysabella Lucero
 Zhuchen Shao other1.pdf
proposal1.pdf
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

Healthy Chair

Ryan Chen, Alan Tokarsky, Tod Wang

Healthy Chair

Featured Project

Team Members:

- Wang Qiuyu (qiuyuw2)

- Ryan Chen (ryanc6)

- Alan Torkarsky(alanmt2)

## Problem

The majority of the population sits for most of the day, whether it’s students doing homework or

employees working at a desk. In particular, during the Covid era where many people are either

working at home or quarantining for long periods of time, they tend to work out less and sit

longer, making it more likely for people to result in obesity, hemorrhoids, and even heart

diseases. In addition, sitting too long is detrimental to one’s bottom and urinary tract, and can

result in urinary urgency, and poor sitting posture can lead to reduced blood circulation, joint

and muscle pain, and other health-related issues.

## Solution

Our team is proposing a project to develop a healthy chair that aims at addressing the problems

mentioned above by reminding people if they have been sitting for too long, using a fan to cool

off the chair, and making people aware of their unhealthy leaning posture.

1. It uses thin film pressure sensors under the chair’s seat to detect the presence of a user,

and pressure sensors on the chair’s back to detect the leaning posture of the user.

2. It uses a temperature sensor under the chair’s seat, and if the seat’s temperature goes

beyond a set temperature threshold, a fan below will be turned on by the microcontroller.

3. It utilizes an LCD display with programmable user interface. The user is able to input the

duration of time the chair will alert the user.

4. It uses a voice module to remind the user if he or she has been sitting for too long. The

sitting time is inputted by the user and tracked by the microcontroller.

5. Utilize only a voice chip instead of the existing speech module to construct our own

voice module.

6. The "smart" chair is able to analyze the situation that the chair surface temperature

exceeds a certain temperature within 24 hours and warns the user about it.

## Solution Components

## Signal Acquisition Subsystem

The signal acquisition subsystem is composed of multiple pressure sensors and a temperature

sensor. This subsystem provides all the input signals (pressure exerted on the bottom and the

back of the chair, as well as the chair’s temperature) that go into the microcontroller. We will be

using RP-C18.3-ST thin film pressure sensors and MLX90614-DCC non-contact IR temperature

sensor.

## Microcontroller Subsystem

In order to achieve seamless data transfer and have enough IO for all the sensors we will use

two ATMEGA88A-PU microcontrollers. One microcontroller is used to take the inputs and

serves as the master, and the second one controls the outputs and acts as the slave. We will

use I2C communication to let the two microcontrollers talk to each other. The microcontrollers

will also be programmed with the ch340g usb to ttl converter. They will be programmed outside

the board and placed into it to avoid over cluttering the PCB with extra circuits.

The microcontroller will be in charge of processing the data that it receives from all input

sensors: pressure and temperature. Once it determines that there is a person sitting on it we

can use the internal clock to begin tracking how long they have been sitting. The clock will also

be used to determine if the person has stood up for a break. The microcontroller will also use

the readings from the temperature sensor to determine if the chair has been overheating to turn

on the fans if necessary. A speaker will tell the user to get up and stretch for a while when they

have been sitting for too long. We will use the speech module to create speech through the

speaker to inform the user of their lengthy sitting duration.

The microcontroller will also be able to relay data about the posture to the led screen for the

user. When it’s detected that the user is leaning against the chair improperly for too long from

the thin film pressure sensors on the chair back, we will flash the corresponding LEDs to notify

the user of their unhealthy sitting posture.

## Implementation Subsystem

The implementation subsystem can be further broken down into three modules: the fan module,

the speech module, and the LCD module. This subsystem includes all the outputs controlled by

the microcontroller. We will be using a MF40100V2-1000U-A99 fan for the fan module,

ISD4002-240PY voice record chip for the speech module, and Adafruit 1.54" 240x240 Wide

Angle TFT LCD Display with MicroSD - ST7789 LCD display for the OLED.

## Power Subsystem

The power subsystem converts 120V AC voltage to a lower DC voltage. Since most of the input

and output sensors, as well as the ATMEGA88A-PU microcontroller operate under a DC voltage

of around or less than 5V, we will be implementing the power subsystem that can switch

between a battery and normal power from the wall.

## Criteria for Success

-The thin film pressure sensors on the bottom of the chair are able to detect the pressure of a

human sitting on the chair

-The temperature sensor is able to detect an increase in temperature and turns the fan as

temperature goes beyond our set threshold temperature. After the temperature decreases

below the threshold, the fan is able to be turned off by the microcontroller

-The thin film pressure sensors on the back of the chair are able to detect unhealthy sitting

posture

-The outputs of the implementation subsystem including the speech, fan, and LCD modules are

able to function as described above and inform the user correctly

## Envision of Final Demo

Our final demo of the healthy chair project is an office chair with grids. The office chair’s back

holds several other pressure sensors to detect the person’s leaning posture. The pressure and

temperature sensors are located under the office chair. After receiving input time from the user,

the healthy chair is able to warn the user if he has been sitting for too long by alerting him from

the speech module. The fan below the chair’s seat is able to turn on after the chair seat’s

temperature goes beyond a set threshold temperature. The LCD displays which sensors are

activated and it also receives the user’s time input.

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