Physical System Design

Designer: Nick Weiner

Project Overview

My Role

This project is a passion project to make gardening more accessible to family and friends. The project’s design is both highly iterative and collaborative. As a part of this ongoing effort, I wouldn’t have been able to get this far without the support of several others with more specific expertise in various areas such as electronic circuitry and software architecture.

Project Summary

This project improves accessibility and safety in gardening by using IoT devices and a sophisticated platform. Through careful research and ideation, empowerPlant identifies the potential for IoT devices, sensors, and networking to improve the gardening experience.

The Problem

Various physical disabilities and mobility issues present significant barriers to those who wish to maintain a garden. Some of the issues include kneeling and bending down, grasping gardening tools, prolonged, repetitive tasks, and uneven terrain.

Scope

This project encompasses the design and subsequent development of an irrigation system using sensors and data to improve accessibility in gardening. The system is designed with the intent to be user-friendly, efficient, and adaptable to its users’ needs. The project involves mixed methods research, prototypes, and thorough testing. Its success is evaluated based on user feedback, tests, and metrics such as reliability, usability, and long-term maintenance.

Goal

To greatly reduce many of the accessibility challenges involved in gardening while providing a familiar experience.

Design Thinking Case Study

My Grandmother’s Flower Garden Experience

Empathize

Through observations, I found significant physical barriers and pain points in my grandmother’s garden experience:

• Difficulty reaching a water bib only 10 inches above the ground
• Unsafe pathways leading to garden beds
• Health conditions such as arthritis in her legs, arms, and fingers could make turning valves difficult

I also observed what my grandmother enjoyed the most about working in her garden:

• Comfortable experiences with the outdoors
• Interacting with physical objects in her backyard, especially her bird feeders, and discussing various signs and decorations

Define

The problem is that my grandmother’s severe arthritis keeps her from gardening. Physical barriers such as water bibs position near the ground and unsafe walkways create difficulties.

Automation and the Internet of Things (IoT) can provide a solution to reduce the physical demands of gardening.

It was also important to consider my grandmother’s desire to continue to enjoy the outdoors and the process of gardening.

Ideate

I brainstormed solutions that could help. I considered the priority and impact of my proposed solutions, which included:

• Mobility challenges
• Simplifying garden maintenance
• Comfortable Tasks

I found some key insights to apply in the design of early prototypes:

• Physical interactions with the system must be intuitive
• Outdoor, physical experiences with the garden should be prioritized with full automation serving only as a redundancy rather than the default experience

Low-Fidelity Sketches

Mind Map

Prototype & Testing

Source of Water Flow Primary: Rain barrel w/ float level sensor

Secondary: Water bib w/ flow sensor

A familiar method for watering the garden is using the hose to water plants directly. Alternatively, the rain barrel can supply water to the garden. The system prioritizes water flow from the rain barrel first and powers the water pump to deliver water to the garden's hoses while soil moisture is low. Once water depletes to a certain threshold and the soil moisture still reads low, the solenoid valve will open and water then flows directly from the water bib.