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Plants & Robots

Building plant feeding robots with children.

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  • How to make an animation that tells you when to water your plants
  • How to create a plant watering robot using a Raspberry Pi, an Arduino and a moisture sensor.

About

Plants and Robots is an exciting new STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) project for primary schools, combining robotics and digital art activities.  Students taking part in the project used Raspberry Pi computers to build plant watering robots and explored the social impact of new technology on food production through creative writing and discussion. Along the way students developed their programming, biology and creative skills, examining food production from a range of creative perspectives.

The video above shows students at St Ann’s Primary demonstrating their plant sensing & watering robot. In this demo, a student dips the moisture sensor in and out of some very wet soil. When the sensor senses the conductivity of the moist soil, the robot arm does nothing. When the student removes the sensor from the moist soil, the system no longer senses this conductivity and triggers the robot arm to water the plant below. By changing the tolerance of the systems response to different levels of conductivity and resistance, students were able to program the robot arm to water plants only when their soil was dry.

The project is a collaboration between FACT, Curious Minds, artist Neil Winterburn and three primary schools in St.Helens, St Ann’s Primary School in Rainhill, St Mary’s & Thomas Primary and Lansbury Bridge School & Sports College.

To read more about the project click here.

See below for a set of how to guides.


Plants and Robots is part of the Curious Minds SLICE initiative, which aims to support arts organisations to develop their offer to schools.

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Kit

Plants & Robots Project Kit List This page has 3 kit lists. All of the kit used on the Plants and Robots project Kit used on the Pi & Picoboard activity to create a plant sensing animation Kit used on the Arduino Activity to create a plant watering robot You can find a quick start…

Read more Kit

How to make an animated display that tells you when to water your plants.

This guide is aimed at children aged 7 and over. Under 10’s should ask a grown up to help them. This guide will show you how to use Scratch, a Picoboard and a Moisture sensor to test if a plants soil is dry and make a character say something in response. To download a .pdf…

Read more How to make an animated display that tells you when to water your plants.

How to create a plant watering robot using a Raspberry Pi, an Arduino and a moisture sensor.

This guide will show you how to make a robot that feeds a plant when it’s soil is dry. It is aimed at children aged 7 and over, but under 10’s might want to ask an adult to help set up. You will need… A Raspberry pi, with  ‘Scratch 4 Arduino’ installed An Arduino with…

Read more How to create a plant watering robot using a Raspberry Pi, an Arduino and a moisture sensor.

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Plants and Robots is a collaboration between FACT, Curious Minds, artist Neil Winterburn and three primary schools in St.Helens, St Ann’s Primary School in Rainhill, St Mary’s & Thomas and Lansbury Bridge School & Sports College.

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