Project: BioBox
Focus: Engineering · Automation
Student: Qassim, Year 8
The challenge
How can technology help plants grow in more controlled conditions? Over the past year, I’ve been developing BioBox, an automated greenhouse designed to manage the conditions around individual potted plants. The goal is to create optimal growth conditions for individual potted plants by controlling irrigation, light, temperature, and humidity.
The work so far
Much of my work has focused on building the hardware. I’ve designed and 3D-printed structural components, soldered circuits, and connected sensors, a pump and a heating pad.
One recent milestone was assembling a custom RGB LED array for the lid. It allows the system to control both the intensity and colour of the light reaching the plant.
Image 1: The BioBox lid with its custom RGB LED array.
What I’ve learned
Building BioBox has involved many small steps, each requiring time, patience and sometimes several attempts. I’ve had to develop new skills in 3D design, soldering and Arduino programming along the way.
Progress hasn’t always been immediately visible, but seeing the separate components come together has been rewarding. It’s also shown me how much testing and problem-solving goes into building a working system.
What’s next?
With most of the hardware assembled, I’m moving on to the software. My next step is to develop an app or website to control the BioBox automatically and create growth profiles for different plant types.
Ultimately, I want to investigate whether carefully managing growing conditions can help plants grow more efficiently, particularly in settings where resources are limited.