Automation and Robotics, as well as Control Systems and Technology, which have a strong foundation in mathematical Theory of Systems, already in the middle of the last century occurred in the popular consciousness as Cybernetics, which - while continuing to reap the knowledge of the phenomena existing in the natural world - has evolved into Artificial Inteligence (AI), still continues to be a rapidly growing interdisciplinary field, combining knowledge and skills from many disciplines, among which may be mentioned mathematics, physics, biology, physiology and natural sciences, and their emanations in the form of artificial intelligence, computational and team intelligence, and control theory, theory of signals and systems, decision theory, information technology, telecommunications, electronics and mechanics, as well as various compositions in the form of mechatronics. Automation and Robotics is a demanding discipline of modern science and technology, which - for solving complex practical problems associated with the construction of technical devices for controling technological processes and objects without human intervention (or withe a limited participation of an operator - can not forget about taking care of the development of relevant theories. This is so, since in practice we observe that to solve real (industrial) problems, there is no adequate theory.
Development
Progress in the Automation and Robotics is visible. And now systems containing a thought of a specialist in automation or automatic control, and implemented on the basis of elementary digital systems and complex computer systems and networks, penetrate almost all areas of life, especially science, industry, and economy and the ways to manage them. The benefits of automation and robotics can be seen clearly, especially in industry (automotive, shipbuilding, aerospace and armaments), communications, medicine, energy and agriculture. From an economic point of view, promoting automation and robotics is most desirable because the increasing competitiveness of the economy and giving impetus to the growth of global process of division of labor and globalization in the dissemination of the production results, cause a permanent reduction of manufacturing costs, while increasing product quality and reliability, and shortening the time required for production. Also significant is the fact that the current level of civilization of countries is assessed taking into account, inter alia, the level of computerization and automation achieved in the various sectors of the economy.
Prospects
The observed in recent years intensive development of microelectronics and information technology enables continuous improvement of systems and automation systems, and - in this way - persistently presenting new challenges for automation and robotics. The process of continuous modernization of automation systems means that they become decentralized multicomputer systems, with elements that communicate using a variety of computer networks and characteristics shaped via programming the computers that form the hardware structure of these systems. It can be expected that further integration of the world economy will positively affect the development of new technologies and will contribute to dissemination and development of complex automation systems. As a consequence, it increases the number of uses of robots and automation systems, and the emerging systems certainly will be characterized by greater flexibility and reliability. A notable feature of modern automation is also expanding the basic tasks of control by increasingly complex diagnostic procedures, increasing decentralization of tasks in the system, and expanding the intelligence and autonomy of particular components.
Applications
An example of the directions in which intensive work are carried out within the Automation and Robotics, is the development of adaptive control systems, intelligent control and measurement, and control and diagnostic constructing increasingly intelligent mobile robots designed to perform specialized tasks (particularly dangerous or inconvenient for human) in the sphere of civil and military, integration of systems of management and production control, improvement of flexible manufacturing systems, construction of distributed automation systems based on industrial and global networks (Intranet, Internet, GSM), computerization, computer automatization of safety systems, and other implementation of other systems enhancing the quality of life of human (intelligent buildings, supervising the work of home appliances, industrial automation, automotive, aviation, marine, etc.).
Considering the above development directions, one can expected a further deepening the interdisciplinary character of Automation and Robotics, and amplifying its key position as a link in ever deeper integration of the engineering areas of the real world (microelectronics, mechatronics and other industries) with areas of the virtual world (computer science and the latest haptic technologies).