Problem:
Improve the Community-scale Hydroponics Experience
Plant Killing Leaks
Tedious pH & Nutrient Balancing
No Off-site Monitoring
Current Solution Inaccessible
We worked closely with Harlem Grown, which is a non profit that focuses on fighting food inequality by donating the crops harvested to the Harlem community.
Hydroponics is essentially a way to efficiently grow plants in water without using soil. The plant food is provided through dissolved nutrients through the water. In a typical hydroponics system, water is recycled and continually flows through. Maintaining optimal nutrient and pH levels are crucial for plant health.
Currently, Harlem Grown must manually dispense these solutions directly into the water every few days. On top of this, employees need to actively monitor the water level of the reservoir as leaks can occur quickly. James Ankenman, the farm coordinator at Harlem Grown, said that the most detrimental issue is when in 1 out of every 10 crop cycles, all of the crops die due to a major pipe leak.
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Solutions to these problems exist for large-scale hydroponics systems, but they are too expensive as they require custom installations. They are also not designed with lower budget systems in mind as these systems do not detect leaks or monitor the water level.
Solution:
Leak Detection & Alerts
Automated pH & Nutrient Balancing
App for Remote Data Monitoring
Simple Installation & User Interface
HydroHand is designed specifically for the small-scale hydroponics experience.
User’s will begin by clamping the HydroHand device to the side of the reservoir where both the distance sensor and the dispensing outlets are facing the water.
On top of this, users will not only be able to view the current sensor readings, but the entire system’s history. This is especially beneficial to Community Gardens as they would like to use the graphs as visual aids to help teach hydroponics to the community.
HydroHand is designed specifically for the small-scale hydroponics experience.
Pitch Video
Our Team.
The HydroHand Team was assembled for a Senior Design project that spanned from Fall 2021 to Spring 2022.
