Garvey - the half garden, half robo-pal rover.

Garvey says hi!

Inspiration

As engineers, we rarely get to enjoy basking in sunshine or feel grass softly brushing against our palms. Most of our time is spent in lab, makerspace, and the classroom. If not these places, we're holed up in our dorms catching up on lost sleep. However, the human need to connect with nature still pertains. That's what inspired this project.

What it does

Garvey is a community garden that roams the halls bringing the outdoors inside. It is powered by a Raspberry Pi, some DC motors, and a lot of electrical engineering prowess. Garvey cannot function without its community either though. Garvey is fit with a soil sensor that lets students and other caretakers know when Garvey needs some care (in the form of water or temperature). Garvey brings joy wherever it goes from its cute LCD smile.

How we built it

The chassis made of acrylic was designed on Fusion 360, laser cut to shape, and glued together. Next, the circuit that consisted of 4 DC motors, soil temperature & humidity sensor, LCD color display, and ultra sonic sensor was wired to the GPIO pins of raspberry pi. Then, through VS Code SSH extension, the Raspberry Pi was wirelessly programmed to move forward & backward, display full color GIFs or images, collect soil humidity & temperature data in real time, and stop moving forward when detecting obstacles. Lastly, the whole robot was put together to conceal the circuits, prop up the display in front of the chassis, and secure the structure.

Challenges we ran into

This project had a large scope to begin with. We weren't sure we were going to achieve everything we sought out to at first. However, everything came together in the last moments, from the LCD that seemed impossible to program, to the intricate assembly process that tore our wires out more than a dozen times over. Our team had the ability to take on adversity with a smile, and keep on trying a thousand more times, especially with cute Garvey cheering us on with its little dance.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our team was an amalgamation of many majors with varying backgrounds in engineering. For many of the parts we used, it was our first time ever working with them. However, we learned to lean on each other when we weren't sure of what we were doing. We are proud of the collaborative process we had even while splitting up much of the work.

What we learned

We learned a lot about robotics, using Python virtual environments, and some of the best areas to collect dirt at UCLA :)

What's next for Garvey - the half garden, half robo-pal rover.

Garvey's ready to roam far and wide. Hopefully, we can have a Garvey test-trial in the dorms, to see how communities react to his presence. Beyond befriending students across campus, Garvey can be a great friend and bring smiles to students in primary/secondary school, and even for children in the hospital too. Garvey will grow as it meets new people as well, including being able to walk with anyone at their pace, give vocal affirmations to everyone, navigate by itself, and so much more.