Plant Helper
A conversational plant-care assistant that combines houseplant information with real-time soil moisture data.
Use Case
Plant Helper supports everyday houseplant care by combining plant-specific information with real-time soil moisture measurements. It can help users understand their plant’s needs, receive care suggestions, and identify when watering may be necessary.
Target Audience
Houseplant owners, beginner gardeners, schools, sustainability educators, and developers interested in conversational interfaces, sensor-based systems, and AI-assisted plant care.
How It Works
Plant Helper is a small conversational device designed to support houseplant care. It combines information from a database of common houseplants with real-time data from a soil moisture sensor.
The user can speak to the device and ask for information or care advice. Plant Helper uses the selected plant’s care requirements together with the current soil moisture measurement to provide relevant suggestions.
The system is built around a Raspberry Pi 5 and an ESP32-C6. The moisture sensor and LED are connected to the ESP32-C6, which communicates with the Raspberry Pi through a USB-C connection. A USB microphone captures the user’s speech, while responses are played through a Bluetooth speaker. Most of the software is written in Python.
User Journey
- The user places the moisture sensor in the plant pot.
- User creates a plant profile JSON for current plant or uses existing one.
- The user turns on the Plant Helper.
- The moisture sensor measures the soil moisture level.
- The user speaks to Plant Helper through the microphone when the LED light is on.
- The system retrieves relevant information from its houseplant database.
- Plant Helper combines the plant information with the moisture sensor data.
- The user receives spoken information and care suggestions through the Bluetooth speaker.
Technologies
Raspberry Pi 5, ESP32-C6, soil moisture sensor, USB microphone, Bluetooth speaker, LED light, USB-C connection, Python, houseplant database, sensor-based data processing, and conversational user interaction.
Author
Tuuli Silvennoinen, Mari Lehtikari
Project
GPT-Lab Summer Internship 2026