Aquarium
Project Summary
We built a device to test three properties of water in an aquarium: conductivity, pH, and dissolved oxygen.
Project Description
This robot uses the Vernier Conductivity Sensor, Dissolved Oxygen Sensor, and pH Sensor to test the water in an aquarium, and it displays those values on the NXT screen and saves the data into a text file. This program was also written in Robolab 2.9 Direct Mode, which displayed the sensor readings on the computer screen. Images of both displays are shown at the end of the movie. These three water quality sensors cannot read properly when placed into the same container of water at the same time because they interfere with each other electrically. The robot solves this problem by lowering one sensor at a time into the water and reading the data. A NXT Sensor Adapter is shown to the left of the NXT. The Mindstorms program utilizes a number of arithmetic blocks to get around the lack of a floating-point decimal system in the programming language. In addition to monitoring aquariums, this project could teach students the chemical properties of the environment in which underwater organisms live.
Demo Movie
Project Downloads
- Download the Aquarium ROBOLAB program »
- Download the Aquarium building instructions (HTML format) »
- Download the Aquarium building instructions (LEGO digital designer format) »
Project Equipment
Select the equipment you want to purchase for this project.
