The Gardening Bot

By Zahar Tate

Design Inspiration

First Iteration of Body

Project Description

For my project, I am creating an autonomous gardening bot. One of the significant chores that I've always struggled with is remembering to water my plants, which inspired this idea. The design of the gardening bot is very simple and straightforward. Its main body will consist of a wooden box, supported by two rear wheels with externally attached servo motors, and a swivel wheel at the front. The inside of the box, houses an onboard computer and battery. The robot senses using two front sonar devices, and a platformed sonar to decipher if the object is a plant or not, given the height. Below the top sonar is a water pump, which will connect via a pipe to a small water container located at the back of the robot. The project's concept is for the robot to use sonar to detect objects—in this case, plants—within an enclosed environment. Once it has detected a plant, the robot will manoeuvre itself so that the plant is within the spray distance of the water pump. After watering is completed, the robot will proceed to the next plant.