A group from eCO-SENSE focussed on a novel way of using the energy of plant growth to create a battery to power a data monitoring device in the field. It works like a soil battery, but with enough energy to power a small Arduino style WiFi/LoRa capable device called an ESP8266.
Jon Paterson, who co-ran the event, said “With this device if the plants are growing, you get data. The battery only stops if your plants die, and if that happened you'd know you have a problem.” Their project is going to be trialled in small farms in India.
The winning team, Alpaca Punch, used a Raspberry Pi 3 with a camera to identify and count beetles.
Header photo: Team Ecosense planning their project, taken by Agri-Tech East.
