Two friends, 28-year-old Konstantinos Vaiopoulos and 27-year-old Michalis Moraitis, who work at the CERTH Institute of Biochemistry and Agrotechnology, created a robotic system, CityVeg, which adapts to any flowerbed and supports plants with precision irrigation. Inspired by the philosophy of the Cartesian robot, used in the 3D printer, they built their 3D robotic platform and developed the necessary software to give it flesh and blood.
The project is in the development stage, starting in the first phase with the targeted irrigation and the object of the tests are the lettuces. In the next phase, the functions of fertilization and biological pesticide will be added, so that the user has the ability to monitor his garden from a distance.
But how does the robot gardener actually work? CityVeg is available 24 hours a day to watch the garden. Through a camera, the robot receives its floor plan, but also data on the soil moisture and the robustness of each plant. This way the robot knows the needs of the plants at all times, saving resources as accuracy governs every stage of the process.
"CityVeg is not an automatic watering, but a robot that senses what is happening around it, interacting with the environment and acting accordingly. At the same time, it does not exclude the user from dealing with their garden, it just saves them time. In fact, in case the user irrigates himself, for example, CityVeg realizes this, in order to adjust his next moves," says Michalis Moraitis.
When agriculture and informatics met
Michalis Moraitis, who studied Agriculture in Athens, came to Thessaloniki in 2018 for a master's degree in advanced computer and communication systems. There he met Konstantinos Vaiopoulos, who, coming from a rural family of Karditsa, was in Thessaloniki to study electrical engineering and computer engineering. Their common interests brought them together, while their common concerns helped them to generate ideas.
This is how the idea of CityVeg came about. In a discussion about whether one can be sure of what one consumes, they concluded that if one does not produce it oneself, one can never know what has preceded it until it reaches one's plate. So they wondered how a normal person could produce his own vegetables in this suffocating context of pressure, stress and limited time of everyday life, where even the last minute has been dedicated to some obligation. They decided, using their academic knowledge in agriculture and information technology, to create a robotic system that offers the modern citizen the opportunity to produce its own fruits and vegetables on its balcony, without having to deal with it itself.
In fact, with this idea, the two friends participated in July 2020 in the Trophy Challenge of the New Georgia program for the Young Generation, where they won the first prize in the "Idea" category, which combines agritech with foodtech, securing funding for implementation of their plan and consulting for the business and commercial part.
The benefits of CityVeg
CityVeg, according to its founders, has many advantages in a number of areas, such as health, the environment and education. In terms of health, it enables the user to produce safe and high quality vegetables, with full knowledge of what was used in their cultivation.
Regarding the environment, it reduces the chain of packaging and transport of vegetables, with significant environmental relief, while it greens the balconies, contributing to fresh produce. Finally, at the educational level, it awakens the ecological consciousness in children, who already learn from home to think greener.
"People who are interested in what they consume, who want to adopt a greener lifestyle, but do not have time, who are away from home and want to have a supervision, even people with mobility difficulties, can use CityVeg," says Konstantinos Vaiopoulos.
Read the original article at www.voria.gr