Automation

Automation refers to a broad set of technologies designed to cut down on human involvement in processes. This is typically done by setting decision rules, defining how subprocesses relate to each other, and programming actions in advance, then building those rules into machines. These technologies can rely on mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, electronic, or computer systems—often in combination. Complex systems like modern factories, airplanes, and ships usually mix all these approaches. The main benefits include saving labor, reducing waste, cutting electricity and material costs, and boosting quality, accuracy, and precision. Automation covers a variety of equipment and control systems: machinery and factory processes, boilers and heat-treating ovens, telephone network switching, and steering and stabilization for ships, aircraft, and other vehicles, all with less human input. Examples range from a household thermostat controlling a boiler to a large industrial control system handling tens of thousands of input measurements and output signals. In the simplest automatic control loop, a controller compares a measured process value to a desired set point, processes the resulting error signal, and adjusts an input to the process to keep it at the set point despite disturbances. This closed-loop control is an application of negative feedback. The mathematical basis of control theory began in the 18th century and advanced rapidly in the 20th. The term "automation," inspired by the earlier word "automatic" (from "automaton"), wasn't widely used until 1947, when Ford created an automation department. At that time, industry was quickly adopting feedback controllers, and technological advances from the 1930s had already significantly changed many industries. The World Bank's 2019 World Development Report shows evidence that new industries and jobs in the technology sector outweigh the economic effects of workers displaced by automation. However, job losses and downward mobility blamed on automation have been cited as one factor in the resurgence of nationalist, protectionist, and populist politics in the US, UK, and France, among other countries, since the 2010s. **History**

**Early History**

The Greeks and Arabs, between roughly 300 BC and 1200 AD, were focused on keeping accurate time. Around 270 BC in Ptolemaic Egypt, Ctesibius described a float regulator for a water clock—similar to the ball and cock in a modern flush toilet. This was the earliest feedback-controlled mechanism. The mechanical clock's appearance in the 14th century made the water clock and its feedback system obsolete. The Persian Banū Mūsā brothers, in their *Book of Ingenious Devices* (850 AD), described several automatic controls, including two-step level controls for fluids (a form of discontinuous variable structure controls) and a feedback controller. Up through the Industrial Revolution, feedback control systems were designed by trial and error, relying heavily on engineering intuition. It wasn't until the mid-19th century that the stability of these systems was analyzed mathematically, forming the formal language of automatic control theory. The centrifugal governor was invented by Christiaan Huygens in the 17th century and used to adjust the gap between millstones. **Industrial Revolution in Western Europe**

The introduction of prime movers (self-driven machines) for grain mills, furnaces, boilers, and the steam engine created a need for automatic control systems, including temperature regulators (invented in 1624 by Cornelius Drebbel), pressure regulators (1681), float regulators (1700), and speed control devices. Another control mechanism was used to tent the sails of windmills, patented by Edmund Lee in 1745. Also in 1745, Jacques de Vaucanson invented the first automated loom. Around 1800, Joseph Marie Jacquard created a punch-card system to program looms. In 1771, Richard Arkwright invented the first fully automated spinning mill, driven by water power and known as the water frame. Oliver Evans developed an automatic flour mill in 1785, making it the first completely automated industrial process. A centrifugal governor was used by Mr. Bunce of England in 1784 as part of a model steam crane. James Watt adopted the centrifugal governor for a steam engine in 1788 after his partner Boulton saw one at a flour mill they were building. This governor could not hold a set speed; the engine would settle on a new constant speed in response to load changes. It could handle smaller variations, like those from fluctuating boiler heat, but tended to oscillate during speed changes. As a result, engines with this governor were unsuitable for operations needing constant speed, such as cotton spinning. Several improvements to the governor, along with better valve cut-off timing on the steam engine, made it suitable for most industrial uses by the end of the 19th century. Advances in the steam engine stayed well ahead of science, including thermodynamics and control theory. The governor received little scientific attention until James Clerk Maxwell published a paper that established the beginning of a theoretical basis for control theory. **20th Century** Relay logic was introduced with factory electrification, which underwent rapid adaptation from 1900 through the 1920s.