This term "Automation" is creating a lot of buzz recently. There are lots of courses and specification training being provided and this seems to be a hot topic. Anyone would have seen this term atleast once and that's because this term (Automation) is not limited to a particular domain, it's a wide topic and largely applicable.
Formal definition :)
Automation is the creation and application of technology to monitor and control the production and delivery of products and services.
Actually
Automation is the process where we (user) define a set of instructions for the system and the system keeps following those instructions as a result the work which required constant human support is now being carried out by itself.
Put simply ;)
Let's consider a simple process.
For example everytime you come home after a drive, you have to come out of the car and then open the garage door then park your car.
Now what you can do is automate this process :
As soon as your car reachs the garage ,the door opens by itself.
You can use different types of hardware and software combination for it, even an Arduino board can do it.
Automation in hardware industry
The terms Automation and Robotics are very much related and can be considered same under certain circumstances but are not exactly same.
Automation as explained above is the overall idea but robotics as explained in a dedicated blog is the field-specific implementation of this idea.
For instance your social media stories are uploaded to a certain server but after 24 hours there is a need to delete it from there but it's nearly impossible for humans to delete all of that manually (stories of people all around the world), instead it's done by automation by a simple program which does the work automatically.
Automation has changed the manufacturing industry in a noticeable manner, we all know that most of the car parts, TV, mobile phone and consumer products are now manufactured automatically.
From
devicing parts -> assembly -> quality testing -> packaging -> sales
Nearly all the processes are automatic and are carried out by various robots.
Automation in software industry
This side of automation is less famous but more blooming and vast than it seems to be. One of the most common implementation is in software testing.
This image explains automation in testing very well.
It's better to let a software handle another software than to a human to crack their head for the matter.
TL;DR
Combining different hardware and software to automate a single process or a group of processes in order to attain speed production/service and very high accuracy is called automation.
It hasn't replaced humans, skilled personnel are still needed to develop , implement and constantly manage such systems.
This is one field you will interact with regardless of your work field and you must be ready for it
Refer to software testing for more in-depth knowledge of software automation. Also check simple Arduino or Raspberry pi projects on youtube for extended understanding of hardware in automation.
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