Cbot - Plant Maintenance Robot 1
Preliminary Development Projects
Updated 8/9/15
Key Search Words: ROBOT, ROBOTICS, ROBOTIC VISION, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, AI

The robot at night, looking for the next sunrise.

Planter Water Distribution System for Autonomous Watering
 
To
      effectively distribute the water stream from the robot during
      the watering process, each planter will be set up with a modified
      funnel, and aquarium tubing to send the water in 4 equal streams
      to each plant. In this case, there will be four "bean sprouts"
      under each spigot. The water is very closely divided by 4 when
      put in the funnel and for an equivalent 1 second per plant watering
      from the robot, we turn on the water here for 4 seconds.

 

      

Left:
      View from the top just above the planter tray, with no dirt filled
      in yet. The funnel has been modified to add a water reservoir
      but is in the same position as before.

 

      

Left:
      Close up of the water filling funnel / reservoir. 1/4 inch aquarium
      air tubing is attached to the tubes at the bottom and the water
      is sent four ways.
 

      

Left:
      Water distribution on the outside of the planter. Water must
      always go downhill to keep the amount left in the tubing to a
      minimum!
 

      

Left:
      At the end of each tube, right over the plants root base is the
      Y shaped distribution outlet. Two nice streams come out when
      water is flowing.
 

      

Left:
      Pouring a few ounces in with the water flowing out of each Y
      end. The trays are just to catch the water for now. The soil
      level will be just below each outlet.
 

      


      
Left: Water flowing
      out of the end Y distributor.

      
 

      
NEXT - we add soil,
      seeds and move the robot to the final upstairs location. The
      robot will have to be permanently programmed with its new route
      as well.



      
Interested in learning
      more on the development of this robot? Here are previous uploads
      - LATEST
      AT THE BOTTOM:

      
Previous Articles
1. Plant watering sensors
2. Cbot basic concepts and project definition
3.  Docking sensor, battery charging and FSM explained
4.  Development of the water tank, pump and feed mechanism
5.  Development of the reservoir refill system
6.  Incorporating the Triple axis magnetometer for compass navigation
7. Installing the final components - Bumper Switch Array
8.  Night - Day - Night Detection to trigger watering task

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