Robot Gardener

http://www.sxsweco.com/exhibitions/maker-space-exhibitors

We had a Global time exhibiting at this year’s SXSW Eco. What a great opportunity to present the past year of our work as we show-cased the two most recent iterations of the RobotGardener platform. The recent electronics upgrades, fertigation upgrades, and new bed cover design were a doubtless hit with everyone in attendance. We can’t wait to share these upgrades with the rest of the community on-line when we publish RobotGardener version 4.

We are also very pleased to announce that all of the Kickstarter pledge rewards are finally in their envelopes and prepared to be shipped as soon as the DVDs finish duplication. We can’t wait to put this physical material into your hands. Until then, we hope you are taking advantage of the publication of these same materials on-line in the “Open Documentation” section of www.RobotGardener.com and building your own open source, beyond organic raised bed gardening platforms.

As always, we appreciate your interest and support. So thank you, and please help this project continue to grow by sharing developments and media coverage openly as they evolve.

Will Bratton
Sam Bagot
Outer Babylon

(1294)

Hey Kickstarter Community!

All the pieces are fitting together nicely, just not in the order we’d assumed and hoped. Our Hardware production is moving much faster than out Media production (as media is neither of our specialties), so our Hardware pledges that were set to go out in November will actually be ready to go out by September. However, our Media pledges, Construction Cards & DVDs, that were set for distribution in September actually won’t be available until November. Of course we apologize whole-heartedly for this. We have completed the entire filming process and are well into the production phase of the DVD. Thad Getterman, of Broken Sidewalk Farm, will be producing the DVD. Here is a link to a recent trailer and update video he produced for both the Kickstarter Community, as well as for an interview we had with Le Monda, France’s Newspaper of Record. We were honored by the coverage, and hope you find interest in it as well. Again, we apologize for the switch in pledge delivery months, and hope everyone understands, because like we said, all the pieces are coming together very nicely, and we are certain you will be pleased, even with the wait.

Thanks Again for All Your Support!!!

Outer Babylon
Sam Bagot
Will Bratton

(1194)

The Horto domi smart garden project just received some exceptional foreign media coverage in the French Le Monde – Science and Technology!

http://www.hortodomi.com/store/Le_Monde_Article.pdf

Here is a link to the LeMonde – Technology and Science publication:

http://www.lemonde.fr/sciences/article/2012/08/16/texte-infographie_1746873_1650684.html

Also:

This is a Google translation of an article published on Horto domi in Le Monde’s Sceince and Technology section on August 18th, 2012.

”

Technological fashion “do it yourself” has a new avatar: gardening. Two young Texans Will Bratton and Samuel Bagot, propose simplifying gardener’s life (and organic) with a greenhouse automated and remotely controllable. “Many people have space for gardening but they do not have time, “laments Will Bratton that each dream “productions emancipated centralized “and has a healthy diet. “People will just have to focus on most: planting, harvesting and eating. “Their project Horto Domi, has received more than $ 11 000 with the platform Kickstarter fund raising, which hosts many DIY projects home. This money will be used to disseminate plans and how employment of the third version of the greenhouse, so that everyone can create his own dome. Philosophy is that open source, that is to say maximum transparency for a broadcast the widest possible improvements by the user community. New sensors for better control parameters the garden are already in development. The inventors even imagine several interconnected greenhouses for these productions and more massive diversified. Once built the greenhouse, the gardener amateur just has to feed tray earthworms with scraps or manure (which provides best results). “The idea is original. But Presumably, this project was developed by specialists in electronics than in agriculture. I wonder about the control inputs of fertilizers, which may depend on crops for example, “says Philippe Caillard, director of the National Center Horticultural Promotion (Maine-et-Loire). It will also ensure the thickness of earth power plant carrots or roof height for tomatoes.

1. Main tray

The land is isolated from the environment in order to install the system anywhere. The circular surface is about three square meters. The tray can be made of wood or metal.

2. Bin worms

This wooden enclosure called vermicompost, has two floors. It contains soil, waste organic household and worms earth. These join the garden by traps. The liquid compost, called “tea”, is recovered for use as fertilizer. 300 to 800 per cubic meter to guarantee 300 to 500% more production.

3. Greenhouse

The greenhouse is a polyhedral framework Assemblies of metal tubes hand, covered with canvas plastic. The set has the form an igloo.

4. Roof

Two fans guarantee automatic ventilation. Two lamps are used for illumination or to increase the heat. In the center, a shower used for watering the garden.

5. Sensors

Moisture two tanks, temperature, acidity may even land be controlled, allowing the action back watering, fans …

6. Sprinkler systems

Pipe feeds the central tank. Another, possibly enriched the natural fertilizer recovered centrally fed to the roof watering from above.

7 & 8. Electronic Enclosures

A micro-controller (sort of microprocessor model) integrates the sensor measurements and user commands for decide to water, ventilate, heat … The mixture of water and fertilizer is also automatic. A network connection allows by remote control a telephone or website.

”

*The figure on necessary earthworms per cubic area sounds a bit outrageous to me in meters, 300-800 per cubic meter. In cubic feet one only needs 10-25 earthworms to realize 300-500% increased production. So by my calculations that’s more like 270-675 per cubic meter, but in either case, that is basically the volume of the entire growing bed, so I guess it isn’t that outrageous.

(12951)

Hey all, this is Sam from OuterBabylon. The Horto Domi smart garden project is coming along well. This video is an update video that I made after creating the version three of the electronics box for our smart garden project. This version is much cleaner than the first two revisions of the electronics unit and will be the version that we publish in our video DVD and open documentation.

(1088)

Check out the garden yall! The plants are doing well and we are almost funded in our www.Kickstarter.com project. Let your friends know so we can get funded and get started!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1742152701/horto-domi-the-open-garden/posts

– Thanks,
Sam

(1070)

Hey all. This is Sam from OuterBabyon with an update on our smart garden. Check out what we have been playing around with. We have a new web server library for the Arduino in our software and a new soil moisture probe from www.Vegetronix.com. Vegetronix sent a free moisture probe with which we have been testing our system and gathering data for calibrations. It’s pretty cool, and we thank them for that. Soil moisture readings are important to this project, of course.

As always, thanks for your support and pledges. There is more to come, and we are looking forward to launching this project. So, let your friends and family know about it if you like the concept.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1742152701/horto-domi-the-open-garden/posts

– Thanks,
Sam

(1363)

Hello,

This is what we’ve been working on for the past few months, and it has finally come together. We officially launched our KickStarter.com project.

We would appreciate your support and any increased visibility you can help us with. So, visit the KickStarter.com project page and feel free to share it with as many people as you like.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1742152701/horto-domi-the-open-garden

Thanks again,
Sam Bagot
Sam@OuterBabylon.com

(1592)

So we are Currently working on the media type stuff surrounding our first functional prototype.  We will soon be posting all of our pictures and videos.  So stay tuned and thanks for checking out our progress.

– Samuel

(1105)