Week 9: Testing our Final model

With the final prototype built, Natasha was able to test its functionality using a home-grown plant.

The final model being tested on a plant

Here, you can see the model at work. The sensors are used to collect temperature, humidity, light, and soil moisture data from the plant environment. This data is then sent to the micro-controller which runs the watering algorithm to determine whether these collected values fall within the ideal moisture range. If the plant moisture falls outside the ideal value, the micro-controller operates the valve that dispenses water to the plant.

Week 8: Algorithm Development

To complete the final few stages of the project, the team started to develop the algorithm capable of making decisions based on the input from the sensors.

The final build for the whole model comprising of sensors, the microcontroller, and LEDs connected via a breadboard circuit

The sensors collect data from the plant environment. The microcontroller runs the watering algorithm. The white LED here represents the valve for dispensing water

This week, the team was successfully able to test and run the watering algorithm. In the pictures above, you can see the sensors working in conjunction with the microcontroller to decide when water should be dispensed to the plant. Here, the sensors collect temperature, humidity, light, and soil moisture data from the environment and send it to the microcontroller. The microcontroller runs the watering algorithm which decided whether this data falls within ideal range of readings. The white LED in the system represents the "valve" which would dispense water in a real-life prototype. This white LED turns on when the moisture levels of the plant are below ideal range as seen in the picture above.

The code for the watering algorithm

In the code, you can see how the algorithm makes decisions based on the readings from the sensors. Here, if a valve were attached instead of the white LED in the model, line 110 in the code would have been the duration for which the water would be dispensed by the valve.

Week 6 & 7 - Sensor Integration

In the final stages of the building and testing phase, the group tested the functionality of the sensors working together as a single unit. A system of sensors and LEDs was set up with the microcontroller via the breadboard circuit to verify that the temperature and humidity sensor, photocell, and soil moisture sensor were all working simultaneously to read data from the environment and that the microcontroller was able to process this data and make the appropriate decision based on the algorithm.

In the video, you can see Natasha testing to make sure that the sensors and LEDs are integrated correctly. You will notice that at first, the temperature and humidity LEDs (indicated by the red and green respectively) were off because the temperature and humidity values were outside the appropriate range, but the moisture and light readings were within ideal range so the blue and yellow LEDs stayed on.

Once Natasha pressed enter on her computer, all the LEDs turned on because the values that each sensor was reading fell within the ideal range.

Successful testing of this setup has allowed the team to make significant progress towards the final prototype of the model. In the next few weeks, the team will work together to bring the project to completion and document their findings.

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