Fully automated factories approach reality

完全自动化工厂的愿景已经存在一段时间。客户在线订购，通过电子交易协商批量尺寸（在某些情况下为低于一体），价格，尺寸和颜色，智能机器人和复杂的机器平稳，快速制作各种定制产品的需求。在一家集成的全球企业中，自动化工厂安装在世界任何地方，靠近消费者，提供迅速的客户交付。自动化工厂和流程对于每个修改和设计变更都无法重建 - 因此它们必须高度可配置和灵活。为了成功地重新配置整个生产线或过程，需要直接访问其大多数控制元件 - 开关，阀门，电机和驱动器到良好的细节水平。

在现实世界中，情况不断出现人类干预。当所谓的“自动化”机器被抛出轨道时，或者变得有缺陷，必须召唤专家们进入并排除问题。但这种专业知识稀缺，最常常在问题发生时不可用。

As machines grow more autonomous, the kinds of things that can go wrong with them become steadily more exotic, complex and hard to diagnose, especially when more than one thing goes wrong simultaneously. Further, because automated processes tend to run more quickly than manual ones, the cost and related ripples of letting an exception go uncorrected for even a few minutes can be very high.

Today, industrial automation—programmable controllers and distributed control systems with remote input/output and supervisory machine interface—is still relatively in the dark ages as far as total automation is concerned. There is still too much dependency on manual supervision, which is usually too slow to correct real-time problems. When a serious situation occurs—such as nuclear accidents like the Three Mile Island incident—thousands of alarms occur at once, and manual intervention is ineffective.

通过典型的自动化生产线或过程控制系统，意外的故障导致显着且昂贵的下降时间，而技术人员争夺诊断和纠正问题。例如，在半导体产品厂房，数百万美元的组件可以迅速成为垃圾。

By definition, problems arising in automated environments should be detected, diagnosed and fixed “automatically.” To be really effective, automated systems must include predictive and real-time diagnostics, with error-correction that requires little or no manual intervention. Automatic processes and machines must include self-diagnosis and self-correction.

Lights out in Texas

The promise of remote-controlled automation is finally making headway in manufacturing settings and maintenance applications. The original machine-based vision of automation—powerful super-robots without people to tend them—underestimated the importance of communications. Today, this is purely a matter of networked intelligence, now well developed and widely available.

现在可以为自动化流程提供非常高级的通信支持：许多传感器，非常快的网络，质量诊断软件和灵活的接口 - 所有具有高水平的可靠性和通过集中操作的分层诊断和纠错咨询的普遍性地访问。

With technology available today, fully automated factories in a truly realistic sense are quickly becoming an accepted fact. The term “lights out” has been used to describe fully automated factories. Human hands never touch the products during the manufacturing process. IBM already has a keyboard assembly factory in Texas that is already totally lights out. A few engineers and technicians are on-site to support the machines producing computer keyboards. People drive trucks up to the factory doors, delivering raw materials and picking up finished products. The factory operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with down time only for scheduled maintenance or repair.

您可以记住旧的自动化WiseCrack，“未来的全自动工厂只雇用了一个男人和一只狗。狗在那里确保男人没有任何触摸，而那个男人在那里喂养狗。“

Jim Pinto是一个行业分析师，评论员，作家，技术未来主义和天使投资者。jim@jimpinto.com.