It was during this time that industry was rapidly adopting feedback controllers, which were introduced in the 1930s. The term automation, inspired by the earlier word automatic (coming from automaton), was not widely used before 1947, when Ford established an automation department. The mathematical basis of control theory was begun in the 18th century and advanced rapidly in the 20th. This closed-loop control is an application of negative feedback to a system. In the simplest type of an automatic control loop, a controller compares a measured value of a process with a desired set value and processes the resulting error signal to change some input to the process, in such a way that the process stays at its set point despite disturbances. It can range from simple on-off control to multi-variable high-level algorithms in terms of control complexity. Automation has also found a home in the banking industry. Examples range from a household thermostat controlling a boiler to a large industrial control system with tens of thousands of input measurements and output control signals. The benefit of automation includes labor savings, reducing waste, savings in electricity costs, savings in material costs, and improvements to quality, accuracy, and precision.Īutomation includes the use of various equipment and control systems such as machinery, processes in factories, boilers, and heat-treating ovens, switching on telephone networks, steering, and stabilization of ships, aircraft, and other applications and vehicles with reduced human intervention.

Complicated systems, such as modern factories, airplanes, and ships typically use combinations of all of these techniques. Automation has been achieved by various means including mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, electronic devices, and computers, usually in combination. Minimum human intervention is required to control many large facilities, such as this electrical generating station.Īutomation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines.

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