Mechatronics (Part-XIV)- Exploring Industrial Automation

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Check Out The Significant Roles Of Automation In Industries

Here we continue with the fourteenth part of our blog on mechatronics. Those who have missed our thirteenth blog can read it from Here. It will help to connect with the fourteenth part of the blog discussing about the significant applications of automation in industries. Let us explore the blog to find out in more details. Automation and technology would be a great boon if it were creative, if were more leisure, more opportunity to engage in raising family, providing guidance to the young, all the staff we say we need.

What is Industrial Automation?

Industrial automation deals primarily with the automation of manufacturing, quality control and material handling processes. General purpose controllers for industrial processes include Programmable logic controllers, stand-alone I/O modules, and computers. Industrial automation is to replace the decision making of humans and manual command-response activities with the use of mechanised equipment and logical programming commands. One trend is increased use of Machine vision to provide automatic inspection and robot guidance functions; another is a continuing increase in the use of robots. Industrial automation is simply required in industries. The integration of control and information across the enterprise enables industries to optimise industrial process operations. Energy efficiency in industrial processes has become a higher priority. Semiconductor companies like Infineon Technologies are offering 8-bit micro-controller applications for example found in motor controls, general purpose pumps, fans, and e-bikes to reduce energy consumption and thus increase efficiency.

Industry 4.0

The rise of industrial automation is directly tied to the “fourth industrial revolution”, which is better known now as Industry 4.0. Originating from Germany, Industry 4.0 encompasses numerous devises, concepts, and machines. It, along with the advancement of the Industrial Internet of Things (formally known as the IoT or IIoT) which is “Internet of Things is a seamless integration of diverse physical objects in the Internet through a virtual representation”. These new revolutionary advancements have drawn attention to the world of automation in an entirely new light and shown ways for it to grow to increase productivity and efficiency in machinery and manufacturing facilities. Industry 4.0 works with the IIoT and software/hardware to connect in a way that (through communication technologies) add enhancements and improve manufacturing processes. Being able to create smarter, safer, and more advanced manufacturing is now possible with these new technologies. It opens up a manufacturing platform that is more reliable, consistent, and efficient that before. Implementation of systems such as SCADA is an example of software that takes place in Industrial Automation today. SCADA is supervisory data collection software, just one of the many used in Industrial Automation. Industry 4.0 vastly covers many areas in manufacturing and will continue to do so as time goes on.

Industrial Robotics

Industrial robotics is a sub-branch in the industrial automation that aids in various manufacturing processes. Such manufacturing processes include; machining, welding, painting, assembling and material handling to name a few. Industrial robots utilizes various mechanical, electrical as well as software systems to allow for high precision, accuracy and speed that far exceeds any human performance. The birth of industrial robot came shortly after World War II as United States saw the need for a quicker way to produce industrial and consumer goods. Servos, digital logic and solid state electronics allowed engineers to build better and faster systems and overtime these systems were improved and revised to the point where a single robot is capable of running 24 hours a day with little or no maintenance. In 1997, there were 700,000 industrial robots in use, the number has risen to 1.8M in 2017.

To be continued in the next blog...

Mechatronics (Part-VI)- Introducing Industrial Automation

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All You Need To Know About Industrial Automation

Here we continue with the sixth part of our blog on mechatronics. Those who have missed our fifth blog can read it from Here. It will help to connect with the sixth part of the blog introducing about industrial automation. Let us explore the blog to find out in more details. In word of Bill Gates:

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the efficiency”.

What is Automation?

Automation is the technology by which a process or procedure is performed without human assistance. Automation or automatic control is the use of various control systems for operating equipment 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 minimal or reduced human intervention. Some processes have been completely automated. Automation covers applications ranging from a household thermostat controlling a boiler, to a large industrial control system with tens of thousands of input measurements and output control signals. In control complexity it can range from simple on-off control to multi-variable high level algorithms. 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. This closed-loop control is an application of negative feedback to a system. The mathematical basis of control theory was begun in the 18th century, and advanced rapidly in the 20th. Automation has been achieved by various means including mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, electronic devices and computers, usually in combination. Complicated systems, such as modern factories, airplanes and ships typically use all these combined techniques. The benefit of automation includes labour savings, savings in electricity costs, savings in material costs, and improvements to quality, accuracy and precision. The term automation, inspired by the earlier word automatic (coming from automaton), was not widely used before 1947, when Ford established an automation department. It was during this time that industry was rapidly adopting feedback controllers, which were introduced in the 1930s. 

Phrase History

It was a preoccupation of the Greeks and Arabs (in the period between about 300 BC and about 1200 AD) to keep accurate track of time. In Ptolemaic Egypt, about 270 BC, Ctesibius described a float regulator for a water clock, a device not unlike the ball and cock in a modern flush toilet. This was the earliest feedback controlled mechanism. The appearance of the mechanical clock in the 14th century made the water clock and its feedback control system obsolete. The Persian Banū Mūsā brothers, in their Book of Ingenious Devices (850 AD), described a number of automatic controls. Two-step level controls for fluids, a form of discontinuous variable structure controls, was developed by the Banu Musa brothers. They also described a feedback controller. Thomas Newcomen invented the steam engine in 1713, and this date marks the accepted beginning of the Industrial Revolution; however, its roots can be traced back into the 17th century. The introduction of prime movers, or self-driven machines advanced grain mills, furnaces, boilers, and the steam engine created a new requirement for automatic control systems including temperature regulators (invented in 1624 (see Cornelius Drebbel)), pressure regulators (1681), float regulators (1700) and speed control devices. Another control mechanism was used to tent the sails of windmills. It was patented by Edmund Lee in 1745. Also in 1745, Jacques de Vaucanson invented the first automated loom. The design of feedback control systems up through the Industrial Revolution was by trial-and-error, together with a great deal of engineering intuition. Thus, it was more of an art than a science. In the mid-19th century mathematics was first used to analyze the stability of feedback control systems. Since mathematics is the formal language of automatic control theory, we could call the period before this time the prehistory of control theory. In 1771 Richard Arkwright invented the first fully automated spinning mill driven by water power, known at the time as the water frame. An automatic flour mill was developed by Oliver Evans in 1785, making it the first completely automated industrial process.The centrifugal governor, which was invented by Christian Huygens in the seventeenth century, was used to adjust the gap between millstones. Another centrifugal governor was used by a Mr. Bunce of England in 1784 as part of a model steam crane. The centrifugal governor was adopted by James Watt for use on a steam engine in 1788 after Watt’s partner Boulton saw one at a flour mill Boulton & Watt were building. The governor could not actually hold a set speed; the engine would assume a new constant speed in response to load changes. The governor was able to handle smaller variations such as those caused by fluctuating heat load to the boiler. Also, there was a tendency for oscillation whenever there was a speed change. As a consequence, engines equipped with this governor were not suitable for operations requiring constant speed, such as cotton spinning. The governor received relatively little scientific attention until James Clerk Maxwell published a paper that established the beginning of a theoretical basis for understanding control theory. Development of the electronic amplifier during the 1920s, which was important for long distance telephony, required a higher signal to noise ratio, which was solved by negative feedback noise cancellation. This and other telephony applications contributed to control theory. In the 1940s and 1950s, German mathematician Irmgard Flugge-Lotzdeveloped the theory of discontinuous automatic controls, which found military applications during the Second World War to fire control systems and aircraft navigation systems.

Continued in the next blog...