Two Indian origin students based in Singapore have developed a device that enables automated watering of plants to make certain that the plants do not deteriorate while one is away at work or vacations.
The eighth-grade students, Aekas Singh Gulati, and Pratyush Bansal, at the Global Indian International School (GIIS), said they used to get disturbed to see their plants wilted or dead after being back from vacations and decided to find the solution for the problem.
India-born students said they have tested the idea at their grandparents’ home in India too and the geography does not make many variations to the efficiency of the device.
“We have used a moisture sensor with hygrometer detector which has been connected to a two liters water tank and a water pump motor. A battery and a liquid crystal display complete the functioning,” Bansal told PTI.
“So when the water tank is filled and the connecting pipe left in the pot, the moisture sensor detects when the water is needed and the motor pumps water from the tank which will have to be filled every two weeks. If there are multiple pots as many numbers of pipes can be connected to the device,” he added.
“We are now trying to add a wifi enabled circuit board to it with GSM module which will automatically link our mobile phones to the device and we can monitor watering of our plants using an app,” Gulati said.
Students who are working on the commercial viability of the device have approximated its cost at 9 Singapore dollars or INR 470. The duo was as well selected to exhibit their device at the Young Innovators Programme at IIT Kharagpur.
-Sowmya
