Boy inventor in Google finals
Eliott’s robot gardener faces 19 other worldwide finalists in bid to win web giant’s science contest
A 14-YEAR-OLD French schoolboy who invented a robot gardener is one of the VIP guests at Google’s Mountain View HQ in California tonight where his Bot2Karot is in the final of the Google Science Fair, the web giant’s online science contest.
Eliott Sarrey, from Maron, near Nancy, Lorraine, is the only French inventor to have qualified from the 90 worldwide finalists and his Bot2Karot – pronounced botte de carrotte [bunch of carrots] – does all the work needed in a small garden “potager”.
Eliott built his tractor-like robot from his own design with 3D software and then shaped the pieces with a 3D printer and an electric drill burr. It took three months from start to finish.
Its articulated arm means gardeners will not have the back-breaking job of tending low plants and opens gardening to everyone, especially the disabled.
Controlled by smartphone, it can hoe, bed up plants and water them and has game-like controls after Eliott saw school friends playing such games but never actually getting their hands dirty.
It allows a customisable little garden that is sustainable, providing local vegetables with water and energy savings.
With 20 finalists, the Google Science Fair is restricted to youngsters from 13-18 and carries a top prize of a €50,000 scholarship with other awards carrying €25,000 scholarships. Judging has been over the past two days and the winner is announced tonight.
There are different categories of entries and some of the others include a way to detect heart disease, identifying adulterated foods and a way to make drinking water.
Eliott, who will return after the contest to start classes in 3e at Collège Jules-Ferry in Neuves-Maisons, arrived in California at the end of last week and has already made many great contacts in his presentations of the Bot2Karot to various groups.
Last year, 17-year-old French inventor Guillaume Roland became the first French Google Science Fair finalist with the world’s first olfactory alarm clock. Now a student at Compiègne university, he has recently received €192,000 of backing after an appeal on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter for his SensorWake alarm.
See Eliott explain his project for the Google Science Fair on YouTube:
