How does automation change our lives?

Categories: general

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The purpose of automation is to ease our way of how we do things.



Noun automation is easy to come by these days. Most likely it will be used in context of using machinery or some other technology to allow processes to take place without human input or work, which is supposed to make our life easier, tasks simpler and efficiency higher. In the next few paragraphs let us illustrate how the drive for making certain processes easier can be followed throughout the history timeline.



Automation performs tasks that were previously performed by people. Starting in ancient times with a float regulator for a water clock it reached its first peak with mechanization process and steam power during more widely known 1st industrial revolution. Now people could control and regulate pretty much anything – temperature, pressure, float and speed. New trades and industries were sprouting and new technologies were being tested and put into use. We must not assume that all inventions just fell into place, but were actually designed and created throughout trial and error process combined with a great deal of engineering intuition. When electricity was introduced and steam was no longer needed for many of the existing trades, automation got the push it desperately needed. Electricity slowly got its way into working processes, public spaces, everyday lives and last but not least, factories. During the 2nd industrial revolution it offered them an option of mass-production and with it opened a new world of mass consumerism, which is strongly dictating our way of life even today. With space race in the middle of 20th century the beginning of 3rd industrial revolution could be detected. It gave rise to many of our everyday items we can not live without – computers, internet and endless possibilities of automation.



Industrial development has come a long way.



Science fiction from sixty years ago is becoming todays reality. All around the world robots are taking charge of simple or even not so simple repeatable tasks. Automation is taking its role in the 4th industrial revolution, which is performing a shift from mass-production to mass-customization. Exponential growth of development in world of computers led to creating personalized solutions and new buzzwords like network, cloud and IoT started surrounding us on every step of the way. Creating and obtaining connections is the new “must do”. Automation plays a crucial role in the whole process, since it can therefore be applied to all areas of our lives by not only increasing productivity, quality and consistency, but it also enables us to finish our projects in time or perhaps even faster than firstly thought. It is becoming the key to success when we speak of repeatable and monotonous jobs. Big projects take less time, effort and money, results are more accurate and workers are able to put their knowledge to use elsewhere.



From steam and electricity automation is now focusing around abstract software solutions. The accelerating pace of change and drastic exponential growth of IoT are causing that time is becoming valued more and more, while proper functionality of software is not yet something that should be taken for granted. How come technical advancements are happening nowadays on daily basis? Where does IoT fit in the story and what kind of software solutions do we actually need? How can we guarantee their flawless performance? Would quicker way to perfection mean shorter time spent for development? What kind of consequences may shorter development have? Join us on the journey of searching for the answers!



 


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