Storyboarding
Being a plant enthusiast, I often saw table top plants dry up due to improper care. One of my areas of interest has been hydroponics due to its versatility and ability of plant rotation. The above storyboard mimics a few real life scenarios of plants drying up, being over watered or infected due breeding bacteria present in soil. biomimicry at its best, an be seen in this project.
Overview
- Sunlight
- Water
- Soil
- Planter
Research
Biomimicry
The fog basking beetle is a remarkable insect native to the Namibia desserts. It has a mysterious ability to condense fog onto its exterior shell and redirect the trapped moisture into its mouth.
Research suggests that that micro structural variations present on its shell increase its surface area by upto 60% enabling it to trap moisture 10 times its body weight.
Opportunity Areas
- What kind of product should it be?
- Why Hydroponics?
- What is stopping such a product from existing today?
- What does it contribute to the user.
Fog Basking Beetle
With ridges or sometimes bumps, all fog backings beetles are build slightly differently. On the right, you can see a grown fog basking beetle with large volumes of moisture condensed directly onto its body.
Using gravity, the beetle tips itself mouth down to redirect water droplets into its mouth. The insect can survive in the harsh dessert conditions without encountering a water source for months.
What makes it interesting is the scale of beetle compared to the volume of water it collects. Collating the beetles actual size with a fog basking net, a 20 X 20 millimetre area would still catch twice as less moisture.
Fog Basking Nets
Determining exactly how the beetle achieves this feat can be vital to solving water crisis throughout the dessert regions. Fog basking nets are widely used across areas with little to no water supply and is ideal for humid weather conditions.
Although a full size net can generate upto 200 - 400 litres of drinking water every day provided good weather conditions, it is expensive and prone to damage due to poor durability.
Which Future?
Janine Benyus, an American innovator, in a 2017 TED talk speaks about the effect of nano-structures over colour. Colour is not a substance but is rather perceived visually due to light reacting with a surface. Molecular arrangements at a nanometer scale can observably affect the colour of a surface. She speaks about how nano fabrication could help man kind embed colour instead of applying it, which could not only open other possibilities in technology and sustainability
The same way, in a distant future, nano fabrication can achieve the same texture as that on a fog basking beetles shell helping replicate its ability in various other scenarios.
Conceptualisation & Ideation
Composition Structure
The air intake module is moulded out of PLEXIGLAS®, which is a polymer virtually unreactive to sunlight which prevents yellowing. It is the same material used for aquariums, automobiles, airplane windows & submarine view glasses. The main body is casted using Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate or LECA, which is a strong, porous and lightweight clay composite. It can trap water into internal pores and disperse it across the composite via capillary action. It is easy to clean and can be scrubbed off any older plant remains. An aluminium 6063 base is non corrosive and good for anodising.
Top Elevation: A round form factor imitates a traditional plant pot. It also takes inspiration from the contemporary earthen pot for its hydroponic planter.
Bottom Elevation.
Modularity
The product disassembles into four primary parts. The base houses a drip tray for dripping water, having an aluminium cover, it does not react to moisture. The perforated ring acts as a stand for the LECA planter elevating it to create a gap for airflow. The metal ring also made using the same aluminium fits perfectly around a dedicated ridge in the bases drip tray. The polymer cap locks into place and can easy be pulled out for cleaning. The LECA planter can be directly rinsed, scrubbed multiple times to prepare it for new plants.
A still showing the complex vortex ridged interior structure of the LECA planter. The pattern lined with the same texture as the fog basking beetle shell, has a combination of hydrophilic and hydrophobic bumps and dents respectively increasing its internal surface area. The planter is safe to clean and can be reused after every planting cycle.
A solar strip covers 1/3 of the base, when exposed to sunlight it charges a dedicated battry present inside the base of the planter. It first uses the conserved battery to power the airflow inspite of it being plugged to an external power source.
Coanda Effect
Above depicted are the airflow patterns of the fog Smart Hydroponic Planter. The colour shift from pink to blue represents a decrease in air humidity as it flows through the tunnel. The tunnel lined with the same texture as the beetles shell absorbs moisture from the passing humid air which percolates into the LECA body. The widening tunnel shape gives birth to the Coanda Effect, creating a central low pressure zone as the air passes close to the walls. This difference in pressure enables the tunnel to naturally pull more air through the high pressure zone, the airflow consistently increases due to constant differences between the tunnels pressure zones contributing to the turbines energy efficiency. This phenomenon is often observed in domestic blameless fans such as Dyson and even jet turbines
A Temperature and Humidity sensor syncs with the electronics to alter turbine speed. Linked to an app, it can allow the user to track air quality around the plant.
A translucent base exposing the internal structure of the baseplate designed to provide rigidity for all components housed over it.
An exploded view of the planter base that houses the motor and all other electronics.
Designed for manufacturability, all components flawlessly come together contributing to ease of assembly.
An exploded view of the fog Smart Hydroponic Planter accurately showcasing every single one of its components and fixtures.
The app for the fog Smart Hydroponic Planter helps the user track moisture concentrations in the air around the planter using the Temperature & Humidity sensor with which the app automatically syncs. The interface shows Humidity and Temperature levels throughout the day. By recording and analysing this data it learns based on the planters geographic location, calculating probable watering cycles.
Product Scenario
Designed to be an elegant and modern table accessory of the future.