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What is automation?

Charlie Bess| September 18, 2012 - last edited September 21, 2012
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automation.pngI was in a discussion yesterday with Jeff Wacker (a retired fellow from HP) about future technologies and their impact. We got on the subject of Robotics. My position was that Robotics is a subset of a larger class of techniques: Automation.

 

There are three major types of automation that I could think of, that could be subdivided much further. My definition of automation is a bit broader than automation on Wikipedia.

1)      Agents – software-based (non-physical) automation

2)      Robotics – physical automation

3)      Self-assembly – Some things that just naturally form into a structure. Ice-nine – for Kurt Vonnegut fans.

 

Are there other types of automation that I’ve left out? Do you think these are valid categories?

 

Naturally, we got into a conversation about automation and workers as well.

Tags: Automatiion| Trends
Labels: Automatiion| Trends
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About the Author
  • Steve Simske is an HP Fellow and Director in the Printing and Content Delivery Lab in Hewlett-Packard Labs, and is the Director and Chief Technologist for the HP Labs Security Printing and Imaging program.
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