What Is Automation?

Automation is the use of technology to perform processes or procedures with minimal or no human intervention, replacing manual labor or decision-making with machines, computers, and control systems. It spans a broad spectrum of complexity, from a simple thermostat that switches a heater on and off to a fully integrated factory that designs, schedules, machines, assembles, and tests products without a human operator on the floor. The field draws on mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, control theory, computer science, and increasingly on machine learning as systems are expected to handle variable or unpredictable conditions.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0, describes the current wave in which cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, and cloud computing integrate manufacturing and logistics at scale, extending a lineage that includes numerical control machine tools from the 1950s and programmable industrial robots from the 1970s.

Manufacturing Automation

Manufacturing automation applies computer-controlled machines and robots to the tasks of material removal, forming, joining, and assembly in a production environment. Computer-aided design (CAD) systems produce digital product models that computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software translates into toolpaths, which are in turn executed by computer numerical control (CNC) machines. Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) extends this automation to link design, production scheduling, inventory management, and quality control in a unified digital system. Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) use programmable routing to support multiple product variants on a single production line. The ACM Digital Library reference on production systems and computer-integrated manufacturing provides a system-level treatment of how these components interact.

Automated Testing and Quality Assurance

Automatic testing applies programmed procedures to verify that a manufactured product, a piece of software, or an electronic circuit meets its specifications without a human operator performing each test manually. Automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) algorithms create test vectors that expose manufacturing defects in digital circuits; a set of patterns with high fault coverage can find a large fraction of single stuck-at faults in a combinational or sequential circuit. Automatic test equipment (ATE) applies these patterns at production speed and records pass or fail results, enabling 100-percent testing of high-volume semiconductor products. In software, test automation frameworks record and replay user interactions or execute unit, integration, and regression tests on every code change, reducing the time between a defect's introduction and its detection. Workflow management software coordinates the sequencing, assignment, and tracking of both manual and automated tasks in business processes and manufacturing workflows.

Building and Office Automation

Building automation systems (BAS) apply automatic control to the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire safety, and security systems of commercial and residential buildings. HVAC control, lighting management, access control, and energy metering are integrated through a shared network, often using the BACnet protocol defined in ASHRAE Standard 135 and referenced by IEEE Xplore publications on building automation networks. Automated highways embed sensors and communications to guide vehicles at higher densities than human-driven traffic allows. Office automation, which reached its first wave in the 1980s with word processors and electronic mail, has expanded to include robotic process automation (RPA): software agents that mimic the keystrokes and clicks of human operators to transfer data between applications, process invoices, or handle customer service workflows.

Vehicular Automation

Vehicular automation applies sensing, computation, and actuation to reduce or eliminate the role of a human driver in operating a vehicle. The SAE International levels of driving automation, from Level 0 (no automation) through Level 5 (full automation with no human needed under any conditions), provide a widely adopted framework for classifying automated driving systems. Advanced driver assistance systems at Levels 1 and 2, including adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assist, are now standard features in new passenger vehicles. Automated highway systems and platooning, where a column of trucks follows a lead vehicle with tight headway using vehicle-to-vehicle communication and automatic braking, are in active field testing. The NIST document on integrated CAM and CNC control systems addresses the interoperability standards that underpin automated production, paralleling the standardization work ongoing in vehicular automation.

Applications

Automation has applications in a wide range of disciplines, including:

• Semiconductor manufacturing, where wafer fabrication, testing, and packaging are fully automated to meet yield and throughput requirements
• Logistics and warehousing, where automated guided vehicles and robotic picking systems fulfill orders in distribution centers
• Agricultural production, where automated irrigation, fertilization, and harvesting machinery improve efficiency and reduce labor
• Healthcare, where laboratory automation handles sample preparation, pipetting, and assay processing at clinical scale
• Building and infrastructure management, where integrated building automation systems reduce energy consumption and maintenance costs