Team Name
Plant Ways
Timeline
Fall 2022 – Spring 2023
Students
- Samuel J. Ruiz
- Kevin Flores
- Samrat Baral
- Luis Guillermo Jaen
- Don Bui
Abstract
Plant maintenance is a common issue in today’s households. Most people do not have the time to water their plants and some often forget. Modern plant pots have added features like moisture sensors, temperature sensors and even displays that indicate when the plant needs to be watered. However, we will combine all these features with home automation and monitoring.
Background
We are going to build a self-watering plant pot, removing the consistent maintenance required in watering a house plant on your own. This pot is called the Smart Planter. The Smart Planter will measure humidity, temperature, and light exposure. We will also build an application to interface with the planter, to customize the settings for the individual plant. Having a Smart Planter will help homeowners decorate their homes with plants without worrying about loose wiring like related home projects. Smart Planter can also be used as a learning tool for beginners as our application would display information about a particular plant someone would want to know about. The purpose of the project is to make it affordable and easy.
Project Requirements
- Plant monitoring
The Smart Planter should be able to monitor the plants’ environmental conditions through sensors. This includes humidity, temperature, soil moisture and light exposure.
- Plant pot
The plant pot will be a 3D print design incorporating all the circuitry inside and will be the ideal shape of a regular pot. The design must include a designated section to install the plant sensors. In addition to these sensors, the design must also include a refillable water tank, a hole for the USB cable, and a button to enable/reset device paring.
- Self-watering system
The Smart Planter must be self-watering. The water pump must activate when the soil moisture indicates the plant needs water and will stop once the sensor indicates the ideal soil moisture is met. The soil moisture parameters can be selected through the mobile application.
- Mobile phone application
The Smart Planter will include a phone application that the user can download and install. The phone application must include a user account creation section before the user is allowed to connect their device.
- Device Connectivity
The Smart Planter application must allow the users to pair to their Smart Planter device and link the device to their local network. The button on the smart planter will allow the device to either begin or reset device pairing. Once the device is paired and set up, all the paired devices will be displayed on the home screen along with an option to Add New Plant.
- Adding New Plant
The Smart Planter application must allow users to customize the device sensor data to create the ideal environment for their plant. When the user clicks on customize device, they must be able to search the database for the plant they are planning to grow. Once the correct plant is selected, the ideal sensor data will be transmitted to the Smart Planter device.
- Notifications
The Smart Planter application should send phone notifications to the user to alert them of the following scenarios: Water tank is running low, plant is not getting enough sunlight, temperature is not ideal, or humidity is not ideal.
- Database
User information about their account will be stored in the database.
- Flutter SDK
Our mobile application will use Flutter SDK for our app to be compatible with all platforms like iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS to name a few. We will have to use Dart as our programming language for our application since that is the default for Flutter.
- Plant Database
Users will be able to set up their Smart Planter by searching for their plant through a search bar. Once the correct plant is found, the sensor settings can be transmitted to the device. The speed of the search is crucial to not have customers waiting more than 30 seconds to complete their search.
System Overview
Results
We are pleased to present the final results of our project, which encompassed the successful 3D printing of our prototype and the attachment of all components to the model. While we have achieved significant progress, it is important to note that there are some pending implementations in the mobile application.
Future Work
The Smart Planter will include a solar panel along with a battery to remove the need for wires to be implemented in the future.
Although we were unable to implement Notifications and a Plant Database in the current project iteration, we understand their significance and the value they can bring to our application and end-users. We are committed to continuously improving our product, and as such, we intend to prioritize these pending features in future development cycles.
Project Files
Project Charter (link)
System Requirements Specification (link)
Architectural Design Specification (link)
Detailed Design Specification (link)
Poster (link)
References
•Dart Packages, https://pub.dev/.
•“The Developer Data Platform.” MongoDB, https://www.mongodb.com/.
•“Flutter Charts – Javatpoint.” Www.javatpoint.com, https://www.javatpoint.com/flutter-charts.
•Flutter Mapp, https://fluttermapp.com/.
•“Greatscott!” YouTube, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/@greatscottlab.
•“DroneBot Workshop” YouTube, YouTube, (51) DroneBot Workshop – YouTube
