Seeds:Where we
work, we are exposed to cool
robots and electronic equipment galore. Many of the things we work on are really interesting, but don't do much to make the world a better place. The future of the planet is very important (We think that's pretty much agreed upon...), and we think that more energy should be directed towards a better future.
After a bit of brainstorming, we decided improving how the world gets its food is a good place to start. There are a lot of people who could benefit from cheaper automation of their food. There is quite a bit of research into automating large farms and groves, but not many people are focusing on the garden or acreage. This small scale of automation intrigues us. We believe there is potential to free up the world's food supplies with cheap small-scale automation. For the past few months we've slowly taken this idea and shaped it into something obtainable by a couple of college students, but classwork kept our seed dormant until...
The Water!:Late September, at a job fair, we learned about
Digi's Wireless Design Contest. In short, we compete by using one of Digi's new starter kits to design and develop a wireless application that saves water, electricity and/or gas. This is wonderful because our design can save on all three!
We've been busy bees for the past week reading, researching and designing. There is a lot to know about plant growth, water pumps, microcontrollers, etc. Enough research is done now, and all the parts for our first prototype are on their way! We'll be putting them all together very soon and growing radishes (yum!) with the first prototype of the robotic gardener. What we need now is a bit of...
Sunshine:That's where you come in! We'd love to know what you think of our project, gardening, electronics... anything really! Let your friends know about this project too. We've got some long winter months in front of us, so we need all the sunshine and support we can get!
