Control of Industrial Automation
V.M. Chadeev, N.I. Aristova
V.A. Trapeznikov Institute of Control Sciences
Moscow, Russia
chavama@yandex.ru, avtprom@yandex.ru
Abstract — Automation is the only humane way to increase
labor productivity in the country. The control theory of
automation invariant to technological operation types, an
invariant model and automation capabilities frontier are
discussed. The connection between the cost of a robot and the
production automation of its components is analyzed. The
robotic system, which is the main instrument of industrial
automation, is considered in terms of a closed self-reproducing
system. An invariant theory allows estimation of the product
cost in automated production. The synergetic effect is estimated
arising from the industrial feedback, when robots are used to
automate the production of elements of the robots themselves.
Keywords — labor productivity, technological operations;
industrial automation; control of automation; automaton;
robot; model invariant to technological operations; robot
service life; cost of robot operational time
I. INTRODUCTION
The main value of a man (and mankind) is free time. It
allows thinking about the future. The amount of free time is
determined by the productivity of labor in society. The history
of mankind is the history of the growth of labor productivity.
An increase in labor productivity can be achieved due to
many factors: cheap labor resources, strengthening of human
exploitation, training of workers, organization of production.
All these methods have been and are being used now. These
methods are mobile, require low initial expenses, but are
limited by the physiological capabilities of a person, as it is
inscribed in the labor code (duration of the work day, power
loads, climate conditions, etc.)
Alternative to the intensification of human exploitation and
the only humane way to increase labor productivity is the
production automation. Any arguments about the growth of
unemployment, the narrowing of the market and other
economic categories are fakes. The automation of production
should lead by law to a reduction of the working day duration
in industry and an increase in the salaries of those who are not
replaced by automata.
Nowadays, automation of production is a common thing.
The term production in this article means a real physical
production. Unlike the virtual one in office, it is associated
with the manufacturing of parts and the assembly of real
physical products [1]. Automata used in industry are intended
for performing a variety of technological operations. Any
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production, even a medium-sized production, is now initially
planned as an automated one [2]. Until recently,
underdeveloped countries with cheap labor resources were
used for these purposes. But now the automata are cheaper
even there. Automata are used so widely that it is time to
automate their production. Automata are diverse - from
primitive ones, capable only to transfer a detail from point A to
point B, to highly intelligent robots.
On the terminology in this article: automaton and robot are
synonyms, the cost and human work time are also
synonymous, as in Adam Smith.
The cost of performing technological operations by an
automaton will be discussed. Two factors are important here.
The resource of any robot is limited and during its lifetime it is
able to perform only a limited number of technological
operations [4]. On the other hand, the work invested in the
production of an automaton must be recovered, otherwise an
automation is meaningless. Embedded labor is the cost of
assembling itself, of purchased parts and complex components,
which might be produced in the automated manufacturing [5].
How to take all this into account?
II. SCALE OF AUTOMATION
Automation penetrates into all spheres of human activity,
relieving a person of routine, heavy and dangerous work.
Industry is no exception. Using the same criterion, the maximal
saving of human efforts, it is possible to imagine methods of
automated solution of the tasks of different levels, which face
humanity. The increase in labor productivity is important at all
levels from global to individual. Here are examples of levels:
Automation of energy production by tokamaks. At the
planet level.
Robotization of Japan or automation of Russia. At the
country level.
Automation of car production. At the industry level.
Automation of the production of telephone, window, table,
etc.
III. INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION
The general tendency of the development of industry
consists in the displacement of humans from the production
cicle and the replacement of them by automata. First of all,
such a replacement occurs in mass production (nuts, bolts,
pens, telephones, macaroni, etc.). With expanding the
capabilities of automata and their cost reduction, their use in
batch production becomes profitable.
As for the automata themselves, an important trend should
be specially noted. As the area of application of automata in
the production of consumer goods expands, their own
production becomes serial, and even mass for some positions.
Here a fundamental transition of quantity to quality
happens: the automation of their own production becomes
profitable. There is an industrial feedback, according to which
the products (automata) manufactured on the conveyor are
used on the same conveyor to automate their own production.
Industrial feedbacks have existed for a long time. Now they
are numerous, but hardly noticeable. A typical example of their
occurrence. Microchips for control of stepper motors are
products of mass production. In the manufacturing of these
microchips, automata are used (for example, for packaging).
Inside the automata, the motors operate controlled by these
microchips.
IV. CONTROL OF AUTOMATION
Nowadays, production of any level is initially designed as
an automated one. To implement such a production there is a
wide range of automation equipment (robots, automata) of
different cost and different capabilities. The problem arises of
choosing an automation scheme that would ensure, for
example, a minimum cost of the product. To solve this type of
problem, a production model that is invariant to the types of
technological operations was developed.
V. INVARIANT PRODUCTION MODEL
The formal production model includes: model of
technological operation (TO), model of automaton (or a system
of automata), product model.
A. Model of technological operation
Each TO is described by two parameters: the execution
time, b, and the probability of a correct execution, q. It should
be noted that for our purposes (selection of the optimal
automation scheme) the physical form of the technological
operation does not matter, since it is completely determined by
the duration of the operation and the probability of rejection (1-
q).
Formal technological operations, which will be used to
describe technological processes, have two important
properties.
Additivity of the operation execution times. This property is
obvious if there are no overlapping operations.
Multiplicativity of the probabilities of correct execution.
Both properties can be combined in one formula and for
two operations performed by an automaton they obey the
following equation:
 B1 (b1 , p1 )  B2 (b2 , p2 )  B(b1  b2, p1 p2 ) 
where bi is the duration of technological operation of i-th
type, pi is the probability of correct execution of technological
operation of i-th type. Operator «◦» between the operation
notations describes the transformations, which happen with the
variables during the execution of technological operations.
The above formula means that if some technological
operation B(b, p) consists of two successive operations B1 and
B2, then its parameters b and p are related to the parameters of
the initial operations as
b  b1 b2  p  p1 p2 
 
B. Model of automaton
The formal description of an automaton includes: list of m
types of TO; execution times of all types of TO, bi, where
(i=1, 2,…,m); probability of the correct execution of all types
of TO, pi, where (i=1, 2,…,m).
C. Product model
The formal description of a product includes: list of m
types of TO that must be performed to manufacture the
product; the number of identical operations of each type, ni,
necessary to manufacture the product (i=1, 2,…, m).
VI. PRODUCT COST
The cost of any product is a sum of costs of execution of
TO:
m
 G   gi ni  
i 1
where gi is the time of execution of technological operation
of type i by a worker, ni is the number of identical
technological operations of type i, m is the total number of
technological operations of all types.
The manufactured product will be nondefective with the
probability
m
 P   qini  
i
where qi – is the probability of the correct execution of
technological operation of type i by a worker. The average cost
of the nondefective product is
   G / P  

 VII. COST OF THE AUTOMATED MANUFACTURING OF A
PRODUCT
The cost of robot manufacturing in an automated
production process consists of two components
 R( )  G( )   ( ) B( )  
where G(α) is the direct cost of human work for robot
assembly, B(α) is the cost of time of robot work,
α is the degree of automation of production process, this is
a vector, the components of which correspond to the degree of
automation of each specific type of technological operations,
λ(α) is the cost of a unit of working time of the robot
involved in the production of the robot. The cost of a unit of
working time of a robot is defined as the ratio of its cost, R, to
the lifetime (resource) of the robot, T. It can be expressed as
   R / T  
The human costs in (6) are described by the equation
m
 G( )   (1   i ) g i hi  
i 1
where m is the number of types of technological operations
that are necessary to manufacture a robot, this index will be
further omitted in the notation of the sums but the summation
over all operations both automated and manual will be
assumed,
gi is the time of execution of technological operation of
type i by a human,
hi is the number of identical operations of type i, which are
needed to manufacture a robot,
αi is the degree of automation of technological operation of
type i, and vector
  1  2   i   m (9)
defines the schema of production automation, all
components are in the range 0   i  1 , where
i  1,2,m , at i =0 all work is done by a human, at i =1
all work is done by a robot.
The time spent by a robot in (1) can be decomposed as
 B( )   i bi hi i  
where bi is the time of execution of technological operation
of type i by a robot.
The (6) describes the manufacturing of a robot by a human
and a previous-generation robot. The parameters of the
manufacturing and manufactured robots can be different. To
take this into account, let us rewrite the (1) as
 RN ( )  G( )  N 1 B( )  
where RN is the cost of a robot from the N-th generation,
λN-1(α) is the cost of a unit of woking time of a robot from
(N-1)-th generation.
We will assume that the manufacturing and manufactured
robots have the same designs and the same lifetimes. Then,
using (11), we can write the differential equation for α. For this
purpose, we will divide both sides of the (11) by T. Then, we
obtain
 N ( )  G( ) / T  N 1 B( ) / T  
The solution of this equation is
G( ) 1  B( ) / T 
N
N ( )   0 B( ) / T  
N
 
T 1  B( ) / T
where λ0 – is the initial cost of the unit of woking time of a
robot, which equals
 0  R0 / T   gi hi / T  
Automation of the production of robots by robots is
physically possible only if the cost of the manufacturing robot
B(α) is less than its resource T. In this case, the ratio B(α)/T
from (8) is less than 1, and the asymptotic solution will be
G( )
  ( )   
T  B( )
VIII. EXAMPLE OF THE COST CHANGE DYNAMICS DUE TO
AUTOMATION
The factory 1 produces small motors. The cost of the
manufacturing of the small motor is
 M 0   gi ni  
where ni – is the number of identical operations of type i,
which are necessary to produce a small motor.
The factory 2 produces robots using the small motors
produced by the factory 1. The cost of the robot is
 R0   gi hi  M 0 
TABLE I. INITIAL DATA
 
A B C D E F H
1 Time of execution Number of
where M0 – is the cost of the manually manufactured small Type of technological operations
motor. of operation by a needed for
opera- manufacturing a
The factory 1 decided to reduce the small motor cost by 2 tion human robot motor robot M0 R0
means of the automation of their production. For the 3 g b n h g*n g*h
automation, the robots from the factory 2 were used. The cost 4 1 4 5 4 12 16 48
of the automated manufacturing of the small motor will be 5 2 3 12 4 20 12 60
6 3 3 240 4 10 12 30
7 4 23 4 6 8 138 184
 M1   (1  i ) gi ni  0 ibi ni  
8
9
M0
R0
178 178
500
10 T 1000 0 0,5
In general, the production automation can be profitable or
unprofitable. It depends on the capabilities of robots and their The table 1 also contains the cost of the manual production
cost. Let us postpone the details of optimization and consider of the small motor (cell F8), which equals 178 and was
the case when the automation leads to the reduction of small calculated using the formula
motors cost, i.e. when M0>M1.
The factory 1 will increase its competitiveness by reducing 4
the small motor cost. The factory 2 will reduce the robot cost
by using the cheaper small motors. Naturally, the cost of a unit
 M 0   g i ni  
i 1
of the working time of the next-generation robot, 1, will equal
R1/T, i.e. will be less than 0. and the cost of manual manufacturing of the robot (cell
It should be noted that for the automation, the design of H8), which equals 500 and was calculated using the formula
product does not change! The factory 1 always manufacture the
small motors of the same design, the factory 2 always
manufacture the robots of the same design. The small motors  R0   gi hi  M 0  
of different generations do not differ by design – they are
twins. Similarly, the robots of different generations, delivered TABLE 2. DYNAMICS OF THE COST CHANGES
to the factory of small motors, do not differ from each other by A B C D E F
design – they are also identical twins. 1 Small motor manufacturing
2 Number of
What is changed? 0 1 2 3 4
generation
3 Robot used no R0 R1 … R
A mystery happens. The symbiosis of two factories leads to 4 Cost of small
a consequent reduction of the cost of both small motors and motor
M0=178 M1=46 M2=38 … M=22
robots. Design does not change while the cost is reduced! 5 Vector of the
automation
There are several points, which need to be clarified here. of small (0,0,0,0) (1,0,0,1) (1,0,0,1)….. (1,1,0,1)
We are talking about the succession of generation. It means motor
that if the robot of new generation, e.g. N-th, was produced in production
the factory 2, but in the factory 1 the robot of the generation 6 Robot manufacturing
(N-1) is still in use and its resource is not ended, it makes no 7 Number of
0 1 2 j 
generation
sense to replace it. They are twins. But as soon as the (N-1)-th
8 Robot used no R0 R1 … R
generation robot dies, it is necessary to replace it by the 9 Small motor
cheaper robot from N-th generation. Therefore, the rate of used
M0 M1 M2 … M
evolution of an automation system depends on the lifetime of a 10 Robot cost R0=500 R1=314 R2=226 R=
robot: the shorter the lifetime of a robot, the faster the 11 Cost of the
evolution can be. unit of the
0,5 0,314 0,226 0,119
robot
What happens? working time
The progressive displacement happens of a human by
cheap robots in the production process. This is the sense of The data in table 2 shows the changes in the cost of small
automation. motors and robots with generations of automation. The
calculation of the cost was performed using the following
Let us investigate the dynamics of changes in the cost of formula:
small motors and the cost of a unit of working time of a robot
with automation of production and the succession of robot
generations. Table 1 shows the initial data for calculations.
 for motors
 Mk   (1   i ) g i ni  k 1  i bi hi  
for robots
 Rk   (1  i ) gi hi  k 1 i bi hi  Mk  
IX. DIGITAL AUTOMATION
Digital electronics is widely used in the design and
preparation of production. No doubts that it contributes to
higher productivity of designers, engineers and technologists.
The increase in labor productivity of this type of workers
reduces to the use of software for calculation and drawing. The
reliability requirements are office-like – to restart in case of
trouble.
Digital electronics for industrial automation must have
terminals connected to the real operating installations. The
reliability requirements in this field are very strong as the cost
of failure is high. In this context, big technical and software
problems arise [8, 9]. The problem of digital electronics
application to increase the labor productivity in industry is
strongly related to the reliability of electronics and the link
between a computer and operating installation.
X. CONCLUSIONS
1. The control theory of production automation was
developed, which is invariant to the types of technological
operations.
2. The formal mathematical model was developed for the
description of the control of the automation of discrete
production process.
3. Within the framework of this model, a set of parameters
of technological processes has been chosen, which makes it
possible to describe unambiguously arbitrary industrial
processes, regardless of their physical content.
4. A technique for the formal description of an arbitrary
technological process is developed, including manual and
automated production.
5. An algorithm is developed to calculate the cost of the
product as a function of the degree of automation.
6. An estimation of the synergetic effect resulting from the
industrial feedback is obtained, when robots are used to
automate the production of the elements of the robots
themselves.
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