Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction to
Automation
Automation
• Automation is the technology by which a
process or procedure is accomplished
without human assistance. It is implemented
using a program of instruction combined
with control system that executes the
instructions.
Basic Elements of an
Automated System
• Power to operate the process.
• Program of Instructions.
Power
• Moderate cost.
• Variations in the starting work units; (They are not consistent); such as
sand castings prior to machining, adjustments might be needed for
individual pieces.
Automatic Control System
• The automatic control system executes
the program of instructions to accomplish
the defined function.
• Automatic Control System
– Closed loop (feedback control system)
Feedback
sensor
Open Loop Control System
• The open loop control system operates
without the feedback loop. In this case, the
controller operates without measuring the
output variable, so no comparison is made
between the actual value of the output and
the desired input parameter.
• Safety monitoring
• Maintenance and repair diagnostics
• Error detection and recovery
Safety Monitoring
Reasons for providing an automated
system with safety monitoring capability:
- To protect the human workers in the
vicinity of the system.
- To protect the equipment associated with
the system.
Safety Monitoring
• Safety Monitoring in an automated system involves the use of
sensors to track the system’s operation, identify/detect
conditions and events that are unsafe, and respond to these
unsafe events.
• The safety monitoring system may respond to these
conditions by:
– Stopping the automated system.
– Sounding an alarm.
4 Plant level
2 Machine level
1 Device level