ECE.17 – Automated Watering Garden Abstract
Team Members Heading link
- Joe Biscan
- Silas Chakravarty
- Kyle Hansen
- Anthony Ibarra
Project Description Heading link
The applications of automation are in increased demand in agriculture and horticulture to reduce water waste and increase plant yields. For gardens hosting a wide variety of plant species that have different moisture requirements, properly meeting these requirements can be tedious. Our solution is to cater to individual plants by monitoring soil moisture levels, future weather forecasts, and watering when deemed necessary by the microcontroller. The system can be remotely controlled and provide feedback to users with current moisture level data for that specific plant. This system will make it much easier to maintain a large and diverse garden. This will both save time in garden maintenance as well offer an alternative to individually monitor moisture levels over different areas in a covered location. This is in contrast to previous solutions such as sprinkler systems with little in the way of customizable control other than timing intervals. Our solution can minimize water waste as well as allow a garden’s plants to avoid being overwatered past their individual needs. Preliminary results show that our system can be effective on a small scale shown by our implementation inside the greenhouse of the UIC Plant Research Laboratory.