Creation of a tool capable of sustaining a plant and monitoring the main parameters indicative of its condition: light, humidity and temperature.

Roger Zambrano, UPF Cognitive systems and interactive-CSIM media master student (and currently student as a industrial designer at DinBeat i EQULA, specialized in wearables), has designed The Strong & Independent Pland as a practice exercise in the “Advanced Interface Design” cathedra, together with Anni Arias and Mariela Fierro (Also Master Students).

With and educational purpose, this initiative is an answer to the interest in creating a tool able to support a plant, almost independently through sensors, and monitor the parameters that show its states: light, humidity and temperature.

After various tests, the team was able to 3d print a plastic carcass with a controller, communicated with a server that receives visual information from a camera placed in the same device.

This shows the complexity of using different open source platforms (RaspBerry, Arduino, Processing and Reactivision), and showing users how a very few environment variables can generate intricate behaviors. It would be interesting if various systems were working together, creating more complex environments and forcing plants to cooperate or compete for necessary resources.