Sensors in Automation

It is prognosed that the next phase of advancement in automation, the repetitive production of discrete products, will involve development of new sensors and new uses for old but fast sensors, analogous to the development of sensors for fluid process control two human generations ago and for web processes in the last 20 years. Typical process steps are characterized and examples are given of the kinds of sensors and uses envisioned. Tie-in to computer control is often appropriate but relatively seldom mandatory. The key control feature is high resolution feedback to the process, whether done by analog or digital methods. Both new, fast, and accurate sensors and new, fast, and accurate and powerful actuators must be developed, but the actuators would be useless without the sensors having been developed first. In many cases, suitable economic need and justification already exist, but technology is lacking; this, therefore, is a practical challenge to the engineering profession and to relatively small businesses which can afford to innovate in these modest cost devices for initially limited markets.