The key factors relating to Industrial Automation including general knowledge about the concept and the advantages and disadvantages. It emphasizes Industrial Automation’s power to take over machinery and the social issues associated with Industrial Automation.
* Automation or Industrial Automation is the use of computers to control industrial automation machinery and processes, replacing human operators.
* The most visible part of automation can be said to be industrial robotics automation.
* Some advantages are repeatability, tighter quality control, waste reduction, integration with business systems, increased productivity and reduction of labor.
* Some disadvantages are high initial costs and increased dependence on maintenance.
* Automation had existed for many years
* Computers have taken over the vast majority of assembly line tasks.
* In most cases specialized hardened computers referred to as PLCs are used to synchronize the flow of inputs with the flow of outputs.
* Human Machine Interfaces are usually employed to communicate to PLCs.
* Another form of automation that involves computers is called test automation, where computers are programmed to mimic what human testers do when manually testing software applications.
* This is accomplished by using test automation tools.
* Automation raises several important social issues.
* Among them is automation’s impact on employment/unemployment.
* Some argue automation leads to fuller employment.
* When robotics automation was first introduced, It was thought that the displacement of human workers by computerized systems would lead to unemployment.
* One odd side effect of this shift is that “unskilled labor” now pays very well in most industrialized nations.
* Industrial Automation has only just begun.
* Manufacturing jobs left the United States during the early 1990s.
* It appears that automation does devalue industrial automation data processing.
