Moscow School Students Invent Smart Watering System for Houseplants
Daniil Petrov and Alexandra Ryseva, graduates of the IT class at Moscow School No. 1571, have developed a device for automatically watering houseplants.
The system detects when the soil becomes too dry, supplies water automatically and allows users to control the process remotely through a mobile app.
The system is based on a sensor that continuously measures soil moisture in the pot. If the level falls below a preset threshold, a microcontroller activates a pump and water is delivered to the plant through a tube. Once the required moisture level is restored, watering stops automatically. The device can also be controlled manually through an Android app that displays the moisture level, the time of the last watering and current settings.
While developing the system, the students studied existing solutions, including the Xiaomi smart flowerpot, the Gardena system and the Parrot Flower Power sensor. However, these devices either only monitor conditions without providing automatic watering or are relatively expensive. Their own solution proved cheaper and more versatile, and tests on a houseplant were successful. The students plan to add water-level monitoring and statistics collection and expand the system to support multiple pots.
