Mushroom cultivation environment (MCE)

Article in Morgunblaðið

This project was the latter of two projects we made in the course Mechatronics. The assignment was simply, design a system with computer controlled Mechanical objects. We, Atli Tobiasson Helmer and I, made our project a small environment that is controlled and optimized for the cultivation of food grade mushrooms. In our case, we grew Lions mane and Oyster mushrooms. The mechanical components and the sensor to which they responded were

The environment itself was simply a box made out of wood and aluminium, coated with plastic on the inside to make it relatively waterproof. The fans were blocked while they weren't on in order to hold moisture using rectangular strips of plasti weighted with silicone on the edges which also contributed to a seal around the fan. When the fans were activated they simply blew the plastic up and when they stopped the plastic resealed relatively well. The environment could hold at least 80% air humidity which is optimal for Lions mane, according to our research.

Only a few weeks after activating the MCE, we had almost a kilo's worth of Lions mane mushroom. I consider that a huge success.

The Assigments diary was recorded on Atli's website (website is in Icelandic). The project drew alot of attention on presentation day and we even got a photo in the Icelandic newspaper, Morgunblaðið. As mentioned, this project was one of two projects in This course and for the whole course I recieved a final grade of 95/100.