Automation is a comprehensive science and technology, involving many disciplines and widely used. As a system engineering, it consists of five units: ① program unit. Decide what to do and how to do it ② Action unit. Apply energy and position. ③ Sensing unit. Check the performance and status of the process. (4) formulation unit. Compare the information sent by the sensor unit, and formulate and send out the command signal. ⑤ Control unit. A mechanism for formulating and adjusting action units. The research content of automation mainly includes automatic control and information processing, including theory, method, hardware and software. From the application point of view, the research contents include process automation, machinery manufacturing automation, management automation, laboratory automation and home automation.
Automation of chemical treatment of fluids or powders in petroleum refining and chemical industry. Generally, a process control system consisting of measuring instruments, regulators and computers is used to optimally control heating furnaces, distillation columns and other equipment or the whole factory. The main control methods are feedback control, feedforward control and optimal control.
Mechanical manufacturing automation is the result of the combination of mechanization, electrification and automatic control, and the processing object is discrete workpiece. Early mechanical manufacturing automation was a single machine automation or a simple automated production line using mechanical or electrical components. After the 1960s, due to the application of electronic computers, numerical control machine tools, machining centers, robots, computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing, automated warehouses and so on have emerged. A flexible manufacturing system suitable for multi-variety and small batch production is developed. In the automatic workshop based on flexible manufacturing system, with information management and production management automation, factory automation using computer integrated manufacturing system (CIMS) has emerged.
The management automation of human, financial, material, production, office and other businesses in an automated factory or institution takes information processing as the core, and involves the comprehensive technology of computer, communication system and control. Usually, a local area network consisting of multiple computers and various terminals with high-speed processing capability is adopted. Modern decision support system (DSS) is developed on the basis of management information system, which provides an alternative decision scheme for senior managers.
Automation is an important aspect of the new technological revolution. The research, application and popularization of automation technology will have a far-reaching impact on human production and life. Production process automation and office automation can greatly improve social productivity and work efficiency, save energy and raw material consumption, ensure product quality, improve working conditions, improve production technology and management system, and accelerate the transformation of social industrial structure and the process of social informatization.