Senior Design Projects

ECS193 A/B Winter & Spring 2023

Plant Monitoring System - Soil Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) Powered

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Tabib Hossain
EEC 136A/B Electrical Engineering Senior Design Project

Project's details

Plant Monitoring System - Soil Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) Powered
With the need to reduce greenhouse gasses emitted into the atmosphere, there  is an emphasis on finding alternative sources of energy that are clean and sustainable. One source that we plan on utilizing comes from microbes, which generate electrons within their cells. Those found in soil can be used to generate electricity and this energy can be stored using capacitors, hence the soil microbial fuel cell (SMFC). Having soil in mind, a hobby that has become more popular within the past years is gardening/houseplants. It has been proven that this activity has several benefits (reduces stress, improves sense of well-being, air purifier), however people are discouraged from attempting or continuing as plants rely on several factors to be kept alive.
We plan on using existing soil microbial fuel cells (Mudwatt) as a clean energy source for our plant monitoring system. With the power output being very low, this will be a design constraint. Our product will measure soil moisture, temperature, and amount of sunlight a plant receives. Information will come from the desired sensors and be an input to our CYBLE-416045-02 (Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) wireless communication). We would like our device to interact with the user to display essential information on the plant’s health.
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30-60 min every two weeks
Open source project
Attachment Click here
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