As climate change intensifies, the risks and damages from extreme weather events have become increasingly critical for businesses. In response, OMRON Device & Module Solutions Company collaborated with Weathernews Inc. to develop advanced weather IoT sensor designed to mitigate these risks. The result is an innovative, cost-effective sensor module for real-time, on-site weather monitoring, providing businesses with a powerful tool to improve efficiency and enhance resilience against climate-related disruptions.
Samira Amani, Senior Product Marketing Manager, at Omron Electronic Components Europe B.V.
With climate change causing increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather patterns and events, the need for continuous weather monitoring to support effective disaster management has become increasingly essential. Access to local, real-time weather data is more critical than ever before. Accurate and timely weather data is increasingly vital for day-to-day operations within many sectors, including agriculture, energy infrastructure, meteorology, oil and gas, transportation and logistics, and smart cities.
Conventional approaches to mitigating the risks associated with climate change are increasingly struggling to cope in the face of more extreme and deadly weather. Almost every industry is exposed to the effects of climate change. At construction sites, precautions must be taken against strong winds and heatstroke. In agriculture, reliable real-time weather data and historical trends are crucial for optimal crop management, helping to increase yields and improve decision-making around irrigation, planting, and harvesting. Outdoor event and leisure facilities need accurate weather data to ensure that activities on-site are safe. As global weather systems become more extreme and unpredictable, effective weather monitoring is becoming an increasingly challenging task.
The sooner an incoming weather event can be identified, the more effectively it can be prepared for. In contrast, if it is identified too late, the effects can be catastrophic. Furthermore, general weather sensors are comparatively expensive in terms of their unit price and operating costs, requiring large-scale installation on-site. As well as higher installation and maintenance costs, they often require specialised training to mitigate or prevent any faults and failures. This presents a barrier for sites, locations and communities that require accurate weather data, yet lack the financial resources and on-site engineering expertise to purchase, install and operate the highly sophisticated sensors used by specialist meteorological facilities.
To address this growing issue, Omron recently joined forces with Weathernews, one of the world’s largest private weather information companies. Together they sought to develop a more accessible, flexible, and cost-effective multi-purpose weather sensor, which can be used to address gaps in weather data coverage, and provide precise, immediate, and highly localised weather data. This in turn can help to improve resilience to natural disasters and the effects of climate change.
Having collaborated on the development of sensing devices since 2017, and previously used the company’s products in other applications, Weathernews approached Omron to propose the development of a versatile, compact, and cost-effective sensor with minimal maintenance requirements.
The project was not without its challenges. While Omron possesses considerable expertise in sensor and embedded technologies, a weather sensor was not something that the company had previously attempted. Weather and climate observation are highly complex disciplines, and accurate datarequires a deep understanding of the various patterns and phenomena that can influence meteorological behaviour. The company collaborated closely with Weathernews to gain a better understanding of the mechanics of weather, and gain insight into precisely what the market needed in a sensor solution.
Omron also carried out its own research to explore and in some cases challenge mechanisms of weather, as Weathernews Inc. Technical Director Yuichiro Nishi explains: “We had been impressed by OMRON’s superior technology, creativity and implementation from the planning stage of this project. For example, we are taught that the shape of raindrops is flattened when water droplets are crushed by air resistance, but OMRON, without being bound by conventional wisdom, actually photographs raindrops with a high-speed camera to understand the theory and reality of raindrop shapes, and then applies this knowledge to the design and shipping inspection processes. We would like to express our gratitude to OMRON for demonstrating the ability to take action through various experiments and other means to achieve a high level of quality.”
Of course, results obtained under laboratory conditions are no substitute for the real world environment. For instance, when a prototype sensor was installed on the rooftop of a building or in other high-rise locations, Omron’s engineers observed an unexpected phenomenon whereby the number of raindrop detections jumped due to raindrops adhering to the sensor and staying there when it rained, and also due to the shaking of the raindrops caused by the wind. In order to prevent this phenomenon, engineers obtained weather knowledge and feedback from Weathernews and reviewed the product’s structure in terms of software and hardware, resulting in a product structure preventing raindrops from staying on the sensor.
The wind direction and velocity sensors presented additional challenges. The sensor needed to be able to detect wind velocity of up to 50 m/s. 50 m/s is an extremely strong wind, equivalent to 180 km/h, and capable of downing trees and overturning heavy vehicles. Since the sensor was developed for use in environments such as construction sites where strong winds at altitude can put equipment at risk, it was necessary to find a solution. Omron designed and built a wind tunnel machine specifically to test the sensor, however this could not create truly representative conditions simulating 50 m/s wind. Instead, the company used a more powerful wind tunnel at an external site, which allowed engineers to make the necessary calibrations to ensure that the sensor would perform.
By the end of the rapid 15-month development period, Omron had developed a composite sensor capable of acquiring multiple streams of weather data simultaneously from a single unit. The sensor in effect combines seven separate sensors into one, providing accurate real-time measurement of wind direction, wind velocity, rainfall, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and light levels – all within a single compact unit. Crucially, the sensor is plug-and-play, requiring only a power supply to function. Installation and maintenance are much simpler compared to more complex weather sensor systems and requires little in the way of specialist training.
The sensor is rated IPx3 and optimised for outdoor installation. It contains no moving parts, which reduces the risk of malfunction and breakage, and has minimal cleaning and maintenance requirements. Currently, only wired communication via RS232 is available for Europe, while wireless methods like LTE-M and LoRa are being considered for future implementation. This allows the sensor to connect seamlessly with various devices and systems, with expanded communication options on the roadmap.
The weather sensor holds great potential as a cost-effective, flexible, and highly accurate solution for real-time weather monitoring, particularly in remote areas and sites where reliable data is difficult to obtain. Its capabilities enable higher efficiency in data collection and analysis, helping to reduce the risks associated with natural disasters by providing more effective early warnings at a local level.
