Isaac Fitzwater

The problem:

48% of food consumed in the UK is imported. The costs of produce and groceries is increasing and gardening isn’t a feasible option for those with movement difficulties or those with limited free time.

Main aim:

Making gardening and urban farming accessible to a wider variety of people.

Criteria:

• Usability 

• Accessibility

• Affordable as possible

• Durable

• Lightweight

• Rechargeable

  
  

The pitch:

GardenMate attempts to solve these issues by being a multi-tool, automated, gardening robot.

• Featuring multiple tool attachments for each step of the gardening process (e.g. cultivator for the land, seed dispensers and watering attachments) 

• Sensors to detect fences, boundaries and potential drops.

• UV and weather resistant materials.

• Bumpers to assist the sensors.

This product design aims to encourage more groups of people to grow their own food crops in their gardens regardless of their physical abilities or spare time while promoting the usage of available garden space and inspiring people to take up a new hobby.

While also helping tackle an issue I identified during my research of ‘product confusion’ - with so many different tools and products on the market for crop growing and garden improvements, it can at times be a barrier to entry. As GardenMate contains all the basic attachments required, it offers an all-in-one product solution.

What I was trying to achieve: 

I was trying to create a small and simplistic robot that can take the majority of the manual labour out of gardening to encourage people that may otherwise be put of or entirely unable to garden to reclaim their garden space and grow their own food, or other crops. What is unique about your design: Most products in this space focus on a single task, be it tools to help those with disabilities with land cultivation, automated sprinkler systems, etc. What makes my design unique is that it features swappable tool attachments to be a more all-in-one product.

The look and feel of the design: 

The GardenMate is a small, circular robot, with a physical design similar to products such as the Roomba. It features a hard plastic shell and rubber wheels, similar to many other products in the gardening world, such as many generic lawnmowers.