Early Development

The earlier period is represented by the slow development of basic devices such as the wheel, pulley, lever, screw, and gear and their application in assemblies such as waterwheels, windmills, and steam engines. These assemblies provided power sources to operate machinery. The Watt steam engine introduced an important feature in the machine design: the flying-ball gover­nor. The governor consisted of a ball on the end of a hinged lever that was attached to a rotating shaft and that controlled a throttle valve. As the rotating speed of the shaft increased, centrifu­gal force caused the ball to move outward, forcing the lever to reduce the valve opening and slowing the motor speed. The flying-ball governor stands as an important early example of feedback control—one of the building blocks of automation.

Another development of significant note in the history of automation was the Jacquard loom, invented around 1800. This was a machine for weaving cloth from yarn whose operation was determined by metal plates containing holes. The hole pattern in a given plate controlled the shuttle motions, which in turn controlled the weaving pattern of the cloth produced. Different hole patterns produced different cloth patterns. Thus the Jacquard loom was the forerunner of the programmable machine.

By the early 1800s, the basic building blocks of automation (power source, feedback control, and programmable machines) had been developed, although the components were rudimentary and they had not been adequately assembled into working systems. It took many refinements and inventions to set the stage for the modern automation age. The development of electric-power, a mathematical theory of servomechanisms, and mechanized machines for mass produc­tion (e.g., transfer lines) whose programs were fixed by their hardware configuration all had occurred by the end of World War II.

Modern Development

The modern era since 1945 has witnessed the development of a number of technologies that have contributed significantly to automation. These technologies include the digital computer, integrated circuits leading to microprocessors and other small electronic components, mass data storage techniques, new sensor technologies such as lasers, and new software for machine programming. Table dates many of the important milestones in the development of early and modern automation technology.

Table 1.1 Historical Developments and Milestones in

Automation

Date	Development
Ancient times	Wheel, lever, pulley, cutting implements; assemblies such 'as water-wheels, carts
Middle ages	Windmill, mechanical clock
1765	Watt's steam engine
1801	Jacquard's loom
1876	First player piano — a programmable machine
1913	Moving assembly line for the Ford Model T
1924	Mechanized transfer line for machining automobile engine components in England
1946	Harder coins the term automation
1946	First electronic digital computer (EN1AC)
1952	Numerical control (NC machine tool developed at MIT; credit for the NC concept is given to J. Parsons and F. Stulen
1954	First industrial robot designed in the United States: patent issued in 1961 for "programmed article transfer," developed by G. Devol
1960	Solid-state integrated circuit developed by J. Kilby of Texas Instruments. Inc.
1961	First Unimate robot based on Devol's design installed to unload parts in a die-casting operation
1961	Development automatically programmed tooling (APT), a programming language for NC machine tools
1967	First flexible manufacturing system (FMS) installed at Ingersoll-Rand plant in the United States.
1971	Microprocessor developed at Texas Instruments. Inc.
1973	Computer language for programming industrial robots developed at Stanford Research Institute

Continuation of Table 1.1

1979	The VAL language for robot programming, based on the 1973 develop­ment study introduced commercially by Unimation, Inc.
1980	Personal computer using microprocessor introduced by Apple Computer
1990	Memory chips with megabyte capacity developed

Post-Text Exercises

Exercise 1.1 Read and Translate the Text into Ukrainian

Exercise 1.2 Comprehension Check

Answer the following questions:

1. What were the basic devices of the earlier period?

2. When did the modern era of automation begin?

3. What technologies are connected with modern era of automation development?

4. How did the governor act?

5. What were the forerunners of microprocessors?

6. When did the first electronic digital computer appear?

Exercise 1.3 Read for Specific Information

Read and translate the statements. Correct the statements if they are wrong.

1. Pulley, as one of the first basic devices of automation evolution, appeared in the middle ages.

2. The history of automation has four periods of development.

3. The Jacquard’s loom was a delicate machine for knitting clothes.

4. New sensor technologies do not witness the up-to-date achievement in automation development.

5. Memory chips did not develop before the personal computer with microprocessor was used.

Exercise 1.4 Choose the Correct Definitions for Terms

Match each term with its definition. Translate these definitions into Ukrainian.

LEVER	a device for fastening things, consisting of a cylindrical or conical pin, with its surface cut in a spiral groove, which fits into a nut or bites securely into wood, etc, by being turned.
PULLEY	a circular device, thin in relation to its face area, usually able to rotate about a central axle or pivot, with a durable but elastic rim or with regular teeth cut on the rim, and for lightness often supported by spokes joined to the hub instead of being left solid.
SCREW	a rigid bar turning about a fixed point, the fulcrum used to modify or transmit a force or motion applied at a second point so that it acts at a third point.
WHEEL	a mill worked by sails turned by the wind especially to grind grain.
WINDMILL	a wheel with a grooved rim, used to raise or lower a load attached to one end of a rope, chain, etc, passing around the groove and pulled from the other end.

Exercise 1.5 Learn to Write a Summary

Give a short summary of the text in writing.

Exercise 1.6 Controlled Practice

Find sentences with Passive Voice in the text. Translate these sentences into Ukrainian. Make up sentences of your own, using Passive Voice with the following words and phrases.

1. to refine basic building blocks;

2. Jacquard loom;

3. to develop modern technologies;

4. to produce different cloth patterns;

5. to invent a digital computer.

Exercise 1.7 Focus on Translation

Translate the following sentences from Ukrainian into English.

1. Історія автоматики – довготривалий процес, який почався багато років тому.

2. Зараз розробляються нові види персональних комп’ютерів.

3. Ми знали, що очевидно колесо і важіль з’явилися в ранній період розвитку автоматики и неодноразово удосконалювалися з тих пір.

Exercise 1.8 Discussion Point

Talk it over.

1. Automation development is a durable process.

2. What are its stages and building blocks belonging to each stage?

Unit 2

What is Automation?

Pre-reading Task

Scan the text for answering the following questions:

1. Where is the automation technology applied?

2. What does the automated system require to perform its functions?

Text

Automation is a technology in which a process or procedure is accomplished by means of programmed instructions usually combined with automatic feedback control to ensure the proper execution of the instructions. Although automation can be used in a wide variety of application areas, the term is most closely associated with manufacturing. In fact, the origina­tion of the term is attributed to Del Harder, an engineering manager at Ford Motor Company in 1946, who coined it to describe the use of automatic devices and controls in mechanized production lines. Automation technology is applied in manufacturing operations, in: automated guided vehicles, conveyors, other automated material handling systems; automated storage-retrieval systems; automatic assembly machines; computer numerical control; industrial robots; process control using computers or programmable logic controllers; transfer lines.