Open source hardware is reaching the plant world, the agricultural sector, and its workers, making their lives and work easier. Good examples of this include BQ's Gaia project and hydroponic projects. But there are other projects that help the plant world and people. One such project is called Sunbot , a robot built with Arduino boards.
Along with Sunbot there is another robot called Shadebot, a complement to the first or rather a variation since both robots work the same.
The creators of Sunbot and Shadebot aim to care for indoor plants outdoors by providing them with the precise amount of humidity and sunlight they need. The robots move and shift to find sunlight or humidity for the plants without requiring manual intervention, as they automatically adjust their position according to changing environmental conditions.
Sunbot and Shadebot are robots built using servomotors, Arduino boards, humidity sensors, and photovoltaic panels. The project is completely open source, although at the moment the necessary software and the templates and build guides for these charming robots are unavailable for download . However, this information will likely become available in the coming days.
Sunbot is a robot, an interesting project because it can be used not only with indoor plants but also with any other type of plant, making the use of artificial lights unnecessary for certain plants to thrive. Its counterpart, Shadebot, is also interesting because not all plants need sunlight, but some do require high humidity , although for these plants, a basement might be the best option.
In any case, these projects demonstrate once again that the natural world is not incompatible with Open Source Hardware; on the contrary, it just takes a little imagination to make them fit together better , don't you think?