AUTOMATED AND

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
BY TEAM CODE CRAFTERS
 6.1 AUTOMATED
SYSTEMS
An automated system is a combination of software and
hardware (for example, sensors, microprocessors and
actuators) that is designed and programmed to work
automatically without the need of any human
intervention. However, such systems often involve
human monitoring.
• » Sensors are input devices that take readings from
their surroundings and this data to a microprocessor
or computer. If the data is analogue, it is first
converted into a digital format by an analogue-digital
converter (ADC).
• » The microprocessor will process the data and take
the necessary action based on programming.
• » This will involve some form of output, usually
involving signals sent to actuators to control motors,
wheels, solenoids, and so on.
 6.1.2 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF
AUTOMATED
SYSTEMS
This list is by no means exhaustive, and simply intends to show the role of
sensors, microprocessors (or computers) and actuators in the following
application areas:
• » industrial
• » transport
• » agriculture
• » weather
• » gaming
• » lighting
• » science.
INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION
• In recent years, the focus on increased
automation has led to improved quality
and flexibility. For example, in the
manufacture of car engines, when done
• manually, the installation of pistons into
the engine had an error-rate of ~1.5%;
• with automated systems, the error-rate
has fallen to 0.00001%.
• We will now consider two very
different industrial applications.
 TRANSPORT APPLICATION
• As with industrial processes, many of the automated systems
in transport refer to robotic systems (for example,
autonomous buses/cars, autonomous trains and unpiloted
aircraft).
• These will be considered in Section 6.2. But automated
systems are still used in manually controlled transport, which
includes cars, Buses/lorries, trains and aircraft. (Examples 3
and 4 which follow, will use cars as the application.)
• For example, modern trains will use an automatic signal
control system. If the driver of the train goes through a red
(stop) light, then the computer will automatically stop the
train. This will make use of sensors at the side of the track
sending signals to the on-board computer; actuators will be
used to apply the brakes. Airplanes extensively use automatic
pilots, which control the wing flaps, throttle and rudder to
 AGRICULTURE APPLICATION
There are many examples of the use of automated
systems in agriculture. Again , many of the systems
involve robotics, which is fully described in Section 6.2.
We will now consider one important example that is
being used in Brazil to irrigate crops automatically. The
watering of crops (irrigation) is fully automatic and also
involves considerable amounts of wireless transmission.
This allows the system to be used in very remote areas
that are vast in size – some of the fields are more than 10
km2 in area. Data from an automatic weather station (see
next example) is received by the controller(a computer
system) every ten minutes. This is particularly important
if very wet or very dry conditions are being predicted or
detected by the weather station. Ultrasonic water level
sensors are used in the crop fields that measure the
amount of water in the irrigation channels .
 WEATHER APPLICATION
Automated weather stations are designed to save labour and to
gather information from remote regions or where constant
weather data is a requirement. Automated weather stations
require a microprocessor, storage (database), battery (usually
with solar-powered charging) and a range of sensors:
» thermometer (to measure temperature)
» anemometer (to measure wind speed)
» hygrometer (to measure humidity)
» barometer (to measure air pressure)
» level sensor (to measure rain fall)
» light sensor (to measure hours of daylight).
The data from sensors is all sent to a microprocessor; any
calculations are then done (for example, calculate hours of
daylight, actual rainfall and wind direction). The data from the
sensors and the calculated values are then stored on a central
database. Some automated weather stations are sited near
airports, where reports are sent out automatically every five
minutes to pilots in the vicinity of the airport.
 GAMING APPLICATION
Gaming devices involve sensors to give a degree of
realism to games:
» accelerometers (these measure acceleration
and deceleration and therefor measure and respond
to tilting the gaming device forward/backward and
side to side)
» proximity sensors (used in smart touch
pads; here electrodes are embedded in touch pads
that can detect hand/finger position thus increasing
user awareness). Embedded accelerometers and
proximity sensors (together with a microcontroller)
in games consoles allow increased human
interaction with the game. This allows players to
take actions that simulate real events happening,
giving a more immersive games experience.
 LIGHTING APPLICATION
Microprocessor-controlled lighting was
discussed in Section 3.1.5 (Embedded
systems).
The example used in Chapter 3 was the
control of lighting in an office using:
» light sensors (to automatically switch
lights on or off depending on the ambient
lighting)
» motion sensors (to automatically turn
lights on in a room when somebody enters)
» infrared sensors (to be used either as a
motion detector or as part of the security
system).
 SCIENCE APPLICATION

Automated systems in scientific

research are widely used. There are
literally thousands of possible
applications. The example we will
use here is the automatic control of a
laboratory experiment which
requires accuracy and repeatability.
 THANK YOU
--CAST-- TEAM NAME- CODE
CRAFTERS
TEAM LEADER – LOKESH REDDY
EDITOR OF THE POWER POINT – AARON
PICS OF THE APPLICATION BY – VENKAT VARDHAN
EXPLAINED – VARDHAN , AARON , LOKESH