Reflection: 

What did you learn? What would you do differently?

We struggled mainly with assembly, as it was difficult to set the designed structure and arrange the systems within the limited space. To prevent the structure from moving around or falling over, we designed the structure to have circular plates whose total diameters matched the diameter of the jar. However, because the diameter of the jar’s opening is smaller than the diameter of the whole jar, we struggled fit all the pieces within the volume. We would redesign plant-holding structure to fit the proposed volume in a simpler manner.

We learned that even though we only implemented three systems, things can become complicated quickly. Our previous prototype of having rotating panels to regulate the intake of sunlight became very messy, as evidenced by the sprawl of wires connecting the prototype to the Raspberry pi controller. This shows the need to have individual systems working for a large collective of plants. We cannot have individual jars that each have their own working system. When we build this project on a larger scale, there needs to be one water system, one humidity system, and one light-sensing system for the entire habitat.