Automation in Daily Life Essay

Automation is the use of machines, control transcriptions and in causeation technologies to optimize productivity in the production of goods and delivery of services. The right-hand(a) incentive for applying mechanization is to increase productivity, and/or timbre beyond that possible with current merciful labor levels so as to k immediately economies of scale, and/or realize predictable quality levels. In the scope of industrialisation, mechanisation is a timbre beyond mechanization. Whereas mechanization provides human operators with machinery to see them with the muscular invitements of work, mechanization greatly decreases the penury for human sensory and mental requirements while increasing load capacity, speed, and repeatability. Automation plays an increasingly important role in the world economy and in daily experience. Automation has had a notable impact in a wide range of industries beyond manufacturing (where it began).Once-ubiquitous hollo operators have bee n stand ind largely by change telephone switchboards and answering machines. Medical processes such as primary screening in electrocardiography or radiography and laboratory analysis of human genes, sera, cells, and tissues be carried egress at much greater speed and accuracy by automated systems. automatize teller machines have reduced the need for bank visits to obtain gold and carry out transactions. In general, automation has been responsible for the shift in the world economy from industrial jobs to service jobs in the 20th and 21st centuries.1 The name automation, inspired by the earlier word automatic (coming from automaton), was not widely used before 1947, when General Motors established the automation department. At that time automation technologies were electrical, automatic, hydraulic and pneumatic. Between 1957 and 1964 factory output set aboutly doubled while the number of blue collar workers started to decline.2 Advantages and disadvantages* Inst whole automa tion where a high pointedness of accuracy is required. * Replacing human operators in tasks that involve hard physical or monotonous work.3 * Replacing humans in tasks done in solemn purlieus (i.e. fire, space, vol open fireoes, nuclear facilities, underwater, etc.) * Performing tasks that ar beyond human capabilities of size, weight, speed, endurance, etc. * Economy improvement Automation may improve in economy of enterprises, confederation or most of humanity. For example, when an enterprise invests in automation, technology recovers its investment or when a state or country increases its income due to automation like Germany or japan in the 20th Century. * Reduces operation time and work handling time significantly. * Frees up workers to take on other roles.* Provides higher level jobs in the instruction, deployment, charge and running of the automated processes. The main disadvantages of automation are * Security Threats/Vulnerability An automated system may have a limit ed level of intelligence, and is so more susceptible to committing errors outside of its immediate scope of knowledge (e.g., it is typically unable to apply the rules of simple logic to general propositions). * Unpredictable/excessive civilisement lives The research and development cost of automating a process may exceed the cost saved by the automation itself. * High initial cost The automation of a modernistic product or set typically requires a very large initial investment in comparability with the unit cost of the product, although the cost of automation may be spread among many products and over time. In manufacturing, the purpose of automation has shifted to issues broader than productivity, cost, and time. Reliability and precisionThe old focus on on using automation simply to increase productivity and reduce costs was seen to be short-sighted, because it is also necessary to provide a skilled manpower who can make repairs and manage the machinery. Moreover, the init ial costs of automation were high and often could not be recovered by the time entirely new manufacturing processes replaced the old. (Japans robot junkyards were once world famous in the manufacturing industry.) Automation is now often applied primarily to increase quality in the manufacturing process, where automation can increase quality substantially. For example, internal combustion engine pistons used to be installed manually. This is rapidly being transitioned to automated machine installation, because the error rate for manual installment was around 1-1.5%, but has been reduced to 0.00001% with automation.citation needed Lights out manufacturingMain hold Lights out (manufacturing)Lights out manufacturing is when a production system is 100% or near to 100% automated (not hiring any workers). In order to eliminate the need for labor costs all together. Health and environmentThe costs of automation to the environment are different depending on the technology, product or engin e automated. There are automated engines that consume more energy resources from the Earth in comparison with previous engines and those that do the opposite too. Hazardous operations, such as oil refining, the manufacturing of industrial chemicals, and all forms of metal working, were always early contenders for automation. Convertibility and turnaround time other major shift in automation is the increased consider for flexibility and convertibility in manufacturing processes. Manufacturers are increasingly demanding the ability to easily switch from manufacturing Product A to manufacturing Product B without having to completely rebuild the production lines. Flexibility and distributed processes have led to the introduction of automate Guided Vehicles with Natural Features Navigation. Digital electronics helped too. Former analogue-based orchestration was replaced by digital equivalents which can be more accurate and flexible, and offer greater scope for more sophisticated confi guration, parametrization and operation.This was accompanied by the fieldbus revolution which provided a ne 2rked (i.e. a single cable) delegacy of communicating between control systems and field level instrumentation, eliminating hard-wiring. Discrete manufacturing plants adopted these technologies fast. The more conservative process industries with their longer plant life cycles have been slower to adopt and analogue-based measurement and control unflurried dominates. The growing use of Industrial Ethernet on the factory floor is pushing these trends still further, enabling manufacturing plants to be integrated more tightly within the enterprise, via the internet if necessary. Global competition has also increased demand for Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems. Automation toolsEngineers can now have numerical control over automated devices. The result has been a rapidly expanding range of applications and human activities. Computer-aided technologies (or CAx) now serve the basi s for mathematical and organisational tools used to create complex systems. Notable examples of CAx include Computer-aided design (CAD software) and Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM software). The improved design, analysis, and manufacture of products changed by CAx has been beneficial for industry.4 Information technology, together with industrial machinery and processes, can assist in the design, implementation, and monitoring of control systems. nonpareil example of an industrial control system is a programmable logic controller (PLC). PLCs are specialized hardened data processors which are frequently used to synchronize the flow of inputs from (physical) sensors and events with the flow of outputs to actuators and events.5An automated online assistant on a website, with an avatar for enhanced humancomputer interaction. Human-machine interfaces (HMI) or computer human interfaces (CHI), formerly known as man-machine interfaces, are usually employed to communicate with PLCs and other computers. Service personnel who monitor and control through HMIs can be called by different names. In industrial process and manufacturing environments, they are called operators or something similar. In boiler houses and central utilities departments they are called stationary engineers.6 Different types of automation tools exist* ANN Artificial neural network* BPM Bonita Open Solution* DCS Distributed Control System* HMI Human Machine Interface* SCADA Supervisory Control and data Acquisition* PLC Programmable Logic Controller* PAC Programmable automation controller* Instrumentation* Motion control* RoboticsLimitations to automation* Current technology is unable to automate all the desired tasks. * As a process becomes increasingly automated, there is slight and less labor to be saved or quality improvement to be gained. This is an example of both diminishing returns and the logistic function. * Similar to the above, as more and more processes become automated, the re are fewer remaining non-automated processes. This is an example of debilitation of opportunities. Current limitationsMany roles for humans in industrial processes presently lie beyond the scope of automation. Human-level pattern recognition, language comprehension, and language production ability are comfortably beyond the capabilities of modern mechanical and computer systems. Tasks requiring subjective assessment or synthesis of complex sensory data, such as scents and sounds, as well as high-level tasks such as strategic planning, currently require human expertise. In many cases, the use of humans is more cost-effective than mechanical approaches even where automation of industrial tasks is possible. Overcoming these obstacles is a theorized path to post-scarcity economics. ApplicationsFood and drinkAutomated restaurantThe food retail industry has started to apply automation to the social club process, McDonalds has introduced touch screen ordering and payment systems in m any of its restaurants, reducing the need for as many cashier employees.7 University of Texas has introduced fully automated coffee bar retail locations.8 Some Cafes and restaurants have utilized mobile and tablet apps to make the ordering process more efficient by customers ordering and paying on their device.910 Some restaurants have automated food delivery to customers tables using a Conveyor belt system. The use of robots is sometimes employed to replace waiting staff.11StoresMany Supermarkets and even smaller stores are rapidly introducing Self checkout systems reducing the need for employing checkout workers. Online shopping could be considered a form of automated retail as the payment and checkout are through an automated Online transaction processing system. Other forms of automation can also be an integral part of online shopping, for example the deployment of automated warehouse robotics such as that applied by Amazon using Kiva Systems.Automated miningMain article Automa ted mining involves the removal of human labor from the mining process.12 The mining industry is currently in the transition towards Automation. Currently it can still require a large amount of human capital, particularly in the third world where labor costs are low so there is less incentive for increasing efficiency through automation.Automated video surveillanceThe Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) started the research and development of automated optical surveillance and monitoring (VSAM) program, between 1997 and 1999, and airborne video surveillance (AVS) programs, from 1998 to 2002. Currently, there is a major effort underway in the vision community to develop a fully automated tracking surveillance system. Automated video surveillance monitors people and vehicles in real time within a engage environment. Existing automated surveillance systems are based on the environment they are primarily designed to observe, i.e., indoor, outdoor or airborne, the amount o f sensors that the automated system can handle and the mobility of sensor, i.e., stationary camera vs. mobile camera. The purpose of a surveillance system is to record properties and trajectories of objects in a given area, generate warnings or notify designated authority in case of occurrence of particular events.13Automated highway systemsAs demands for natural rubber and mobility have grown and technological possibilities have multiplied, post in automation has grown. Seeking to accelerate the development and introduction of fully automated vehicles and highways, the United States Congress authorized more than $650 million over sextette years for intelligent transport systems (ITS) and demonstration projects in the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA). Congress legislated in ISTEA that the Secretary of Transportation shall develop an automated highway and vehicle prototype from which future fully automated intelligent vehicle-highway systems can be dev eloped. Such development shall include research in human factors to ensure the success of the man-machine relationship.The goal of this program is to have the first fully automated highway roadway or an automated test track in operation by 1997. This system shall accommodate installation of equipment in new and existing motor vehicles. ISTEA 1991, part B, Section 6054(b). Full automation commonly delimitate as requiring no control or very limited control by the driver such automation would be accomplished through a combination of sensor, computer, and communications systems in vehicles and along the roadway.Fully automated driving would, in theory, allow closer vehicle spacing and higher speeds, which could enhance transaction capacity in places where additional road building is physically impossible, politically unacceptable, or prohibitively expensive. Automated controls also might enhance road safety by reducing the opportunity for driver error, which causes a large share of mo tor vehicle crashes. Other potential benefits include improved air quality (as a result of more-efficient traffic flows), increased fuel economy, and spin-off technologies generated during research and development related to automated highway systems.14Automated waste managementAutomated waste collection trucks prevent the need for as many workers as well as easing the level of Labor required to provide the service.15Automated manufacturingAutomated manufacturing refers to the application of automation to produce things in the factory way. Most of the advantages of the automation technology has its influence in the manufacture processes. The main advantages of automated manufacturing are higher consistency and quality, reduced lead times, simplified production, reduced handling, improved work flow, and increased worker morale when a good implementation of theautomation is made.Home automationHome automation (also called domotics) designates an emerging practice of increased automati on of household appliances and features in residential dwellings, particularly through electronic means that allow for things impracticable, overly expensive or simply not possible in recent past decades. Industrial automationIndustrial automation deals with the optimization of energy-efficient drive systems by precise measurement and control technologies. Nowadays energy efficiency in industrial processes are becoming more and more relevant. semiconducting material companies like Infineon Technologies are offering 8-bit micro-controller applications for example found in motor controls, general purpose pumps, fans, and ebikes to reduce energy consumption and thus increase efficiency. One of Infineons 8-bit product line found in industrial automation is the XC800 family. Agriculture Now that were moving towards automated orange-sorting 1 and autonomous tractors, the next step in automated agriculture is robotic strawberry pickers. Agent-assisted Automation refers to automation used by call center agents to handle customer inquiries. There are two basic types desktop automation and automated junction solutions.Desktop automation refers to software programming that makes it easier for the call center agent to work across threefold desktop tools. The automation would take the information entered into one tool and populate it across the others so it did not have to be entered more than once, for example. Automated voice solutions allow the agents to remain on the line while disclosures and other important information is provided to customers in the form of pre-recorded audio files. Specialized applications of these automated voice solutions enable the agents to process credit cards without ever seeing or hearing the credit card numbers or CVV codes16 The key benefit of agent-assisted automation is conformity and error-proofing. Agents are sometimes not fully trained or they forget or ignore key steps in the process. The use of automation ensures that what is s upposed to happen on the call actually does, every time.Relationship to unemploymentBased on a formula by Gilles Saint-Paul, an economist at Toulouse 1 University, the demand for unskilled human capital declines at a slower rate than the demand for skilled human capital increases.17 In the long run and for society as a whole it has led to cheaper products, lower average work hours, and new industries forming (I.e, robotics industries, computer industries, design industries). These new industries provide many high net skill based jobs to the economy.