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xiii
Preface
The book that you are holding is the result of many efforts in teaching the concept of industrial
automation to young and promising engineers during the last few decades in academia. The authors
aimed to create a system so that engineers will have a full and in-depth overview of the industrial
automation field, with a strong connection to real-life applications and that will provide a con-
stant inspiration for the problems that are commonly found in an industrial environment. In the
adopted teaching approach, one of the fundamental learning outcomes was to enable independent
and outside-the-box creative thinking for automation engineers, in order to produce functional
solutions to difficult problems. In all these years, the authors have identified that there has not been
a book in the existing literature that provides all the necessary learning directions for students and
with a full focus on real-life demands, a book that could prepare them immediately and with the
fundamental deep knowledge to deal with the field of industrial automation. Thus, the book that
you are holding now is the outcome of a writing and integration process that lasted more than
three years, a book that we hope to be a constant reference in the field of industrial automation.
Industrial automation is a multidisciplinary subject that requires knowledge and expertise
from various engineering sectors, such as electrical, electronics, chemical, mechanical, commu-
nications, process, and software engineering. Nowadays, the application of industrial automation
has been transformed into an ubiquitous infrastructure that automates and improves everyday
life. Characteristic examples of industrial automation systems can be found in the car industry,
the aviation sector, the marine industry, healthcare industry, rail transportation, electrical power
production and distribution, the pulp and paper industry, and numerous other applications. Our
society has become so dependent on automation, that it is difficult to imagine what life would be
like without automation engineering. With the current developments in the field of Industry 4.0,
industrial automation is unified with the concept of the Internet of things, embedded systems,
and Cyber-Physical systems, in order to create an integrated ecosystem with the vision to enable
pure automation for all aspects of life, a future in which everything will be connected, integrated,
and automated.
Nowadays, the concept of automation in an industrial production process is a very attractive
subject for electrical engineers, because it perfectly combines all the principles and methods of
classic automatic control with microcomputer or microprocessor technology. The introduction
of microcomputer technology in the field of industrial production, coupled with development in
the area of robotics, resulted in the creation of a special scientific field known as “automation and
robotics”. Although this field appears to be separated from “automatic control”, this is mainly due
to its great extent and not to the differentiation of its theoretical principles. The rapid development
of automation and robotics in today’s technological world has made it necessary for some time to
introduce industrial automation and robotics courses in the curriculum of various electrical and
computer engineering departments.
xiv
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Preface
Each industrial production process consists of a series of simple or complex machines through
which the raw material undergoes a sequential treatment in order to achieve the production of
an end product, while satisfying the goal of increased production, improving product quality,
lowering costs, and increasing production flexibility. Initially, industrial automation systems
were implemented in a conventional way, i.e., with independent specific devices (timers, coun-
ters, auxiliary relays, etc.), and wiring them according to the desired operating mode. Today, the
implementation of an industrial automation system takes place in specific digital devices called
programmable logic controllers (PLCs). The key feature of PLC technology is the need for pro-
gramming (versus wiring) the control logic of the industrial system. The multiple advantages of
PLCs have made them the leading tool for controlling an industrial system, but also for other
non-industrial systems that we encounter in our everyday lives, such as traffic control for a street
intersection, a tower elevator, an automated car wash, etc.
The first part of the book, including Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, presents the basic devices,
sensors, and actuators, in which the aid of an automation system is implemented, as well as the
heuristic composition of automation arrangements and the methodical design of automation cir-
cuits. Also, the basic elements of electro-pneumatic technology are introduced. The second part
of the book, including Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, presents the extended subject of PLCs, whose
hardware and software are both described in detail. The basic concepts of industrial networks for
networking PLCs or other controllers and the applied use of the Proportional-Integral-Derivative
(PID) control law in the industry are also presented. Appendix A presents briefly the arithmetic
systems required for PLC programming, while Appendix B introduces the subject of analog input
and output values scaling. This book was written based on the assumption that the reader has no
prior experience in industrial automation systems, but should be easy to understand if they have
any background knowledge related to motor control, digital logic, and digital electronics.
The projected learning outcomes after reading this book will be to understand the function-
ality of the basic elements of automated systems and the fundamental principles of operation;
analyze real-life problems from an industrial automation perspective and understand what is effec-
tive and what is not, based on engineering and cost-oriented thinking; identify and select proper
sensory and actuation equipment for synthesizing and integrating industrial automation tasks;
integrate and synthesize a classical relay-based industrial automation; integrate, synthesize, and
program a PLC based on industrial automation; and gain fundamental knowledge in the field of
electro-pneumatic automation, industrial networks, and PID control in the industry.
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