The Responsive Rainwater Catchment System (RRCS) is a proposed system to collect rainwater, reacting to environmental factors through sensors and actuators.
The system is imagined as an inverted “umbrella” that is usually closed, and upon sensing rain opens and begins collecting rainwater.
Reference: ThinkPhi
It has as a priority to collect rainwater without blocking sunlight — only activating when it’s raining and light levels are low. It seeks to catch rainwater without disturbing the view of the sky.
Utilizing sensors to detect the level of water accumulated in a small tank and to detect the level of incident sunlight, a motor is actuated to open the system.
The system has 4 states using 2 sensors, an LDR and a Water Level Sensor.
A set of gears and a frame were laser cut for the prototype to test the system’s logic, using a linear gear to go up and down based on the stated logic above.
