How Omron Is Enabling Smarter Cities and Agriculture Through Real-Time Sensing

Welcome to the final 2025 episode of The Electropages Podcast, hosted by Robin Mitchell. Today's guest is Cary Horan, Business Development Manager at Omron, who specialises in sensing solutions for emerging smart city and smart agriculture applications.  In this episode, Cary explains how Omron's long history in relays, switches and board-level sensors has evolved into complete device and module solutions, including an all-in-one weather sensor designed for both street-level infrastructure and remote, solar-powered deployments. The discussion explores why microclimate data matters for cities with multiple climate zones, how localized measurements of wind, rainfall and temperature support safer building design and smarter street lighting, and why precision weather data is becoming critical for irrigation control and high-value crops. Cary also talks about the real-world challenges of bringing new sensing technology into traditionally conservative sectors like agriculture, the complexity of modern data and communications (from cellular to LoRa networks), and how partnerships are helping Omron turn raw sensor data into usable insight for customers. Watch to learn how Omron's sensing platforms are helping to enable smarter cities, more efficient farms, and more sustainable infrastructure.