Aqua Sense: The Smart Water Moisture Sensor
Porter Middle School
Precision soil sensing technology that listens to your grass lawn while delivering the right amount of water, at the right depth, at exactly the right time.
Aqua Sense is a smart lawn watering system engineered by the Magenta House student team that helps people to avoid wasting water on their lawns. Most sprinklers just turn on whenever a timer tells them to—even if it just rained or the ground is already soaked—which ends up making huge puddles in the street. Aqua Sense fixes this by using special "subsurface" sensors buried 3 to 4 inches deep right where the grass roots actually live. These sensors are "corrosion-resistant," so they won't get ruined or rusty in the wet dirt like regular electronics. The sensors talk to an ESP32 computer chip programmed to use a technique called "cycle-and-soak," which means the system waters for a few minutes and then waits for the ground to actually drink it up before adding more. To maximize efficiency, the system only activates when soil moisture hits a specific percentage, with the ESP32 relaying these levels to a weather-synced smart sprinkler controller to determine the perfect time to water. This stops runoff and can save roughly 15,000 gallons of water a year per house—a 30% to 50% saving—helping neighborhoods stay green without wasting a single drop.
Project Premiere Recording
Presentation Materials
*Note, there are several videos embedded to images throughout the presentation.
