Project Overview

What is Hydroponics?

Hydroponics is the cultivation of plants in water, rather than soil. While untraditional, hydroponics allows farmers more control over the growing conditions of their crops; nutrient solutions can be customized, temperature can be controlled, and hydroponic plants are less prone to pests. Such a level of control enables farmers to maximize their crop yield. Additionally, hydroponics avoids water loss to soil drainage, so it requires less water than traditional farming, and it can be configured to be more space efficient. In a world that is being so heavily affected by climate change, hydroponics is one way to grow food in a sustainable and ecologically sound way.

Project Goal

We wanted to create this hydroponics system for everyday people looking to grow veggies, herbs, and other plants in their homes, more easily. In deciding what we wanted our garden to look like, we first considered constraints that our user segment might have for such a system: space, aesthetics, modularity and mobility. Given these constraints, we decided to implement our design onto a multi-tiered cart.

Shown below is a concept sketch for the final product.

Our MVP

A modular pod system with multiple plants that meets our main project description. The MVP pod will automate simple aspects of plant growth such as light, nutrient levels, temperature and humidity. The respective sensors that we will use to detect and monitor these factors of plant growth are luminance sensors, total dissolved solid (TDS), and temperature and humidity sensors.

Shown below is our MVP concept sketch.

Learning Goals