History of automation in the manufacturing industry

Job losses and downward mobility blamed on Automation has been cited as one of many factors in the resurgence of nationalist, protectionist and populist politics in the US, UK and France, among other countries since the 2010s. The World Bank's World Development Report 2019 shows evidence that the new industries and jobs in the technology sector outweigh the economic effects of workers being displaced by automation. The benefit of automation includes labor savings, reducing waste, savings in electricity costs, savings in material costs, and improvements to quality, accuracy, and precision. Complicated systems, such as modern factories, airplanes, and ships typically use all these combined techniques.

The mathematical basis of control theory was begun in the 18th century and advanced rapidly in the 20th.ДЄutomation has been achieved by various means including mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, electronic devices, and computers, usually in combination. This closed-loop control is an application of negative feedback to a system. 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. In control complexity, it can range from simple on-off control to multi-variable high-level algorithms. Automation has also found space in the banking sector. ДЄutomation 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. ДЄutomation, includes the use of various equipment and control systems 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 reduced human intervention. Human intervention is reduced by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions - and embodying those predeterminations in machines.

Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes.

History of automation in the manufacturing industry