Category Archives: Automation

Hi Tech Automation is an automation intelligence company dedicated to the total success of its customers, and profitable market leadership.

By maintaining awareness and a strong understanding of technological developments within existing and new markets, we will continually strive to provide state of the art and highly productive and reliable automation solutions.

Developments of links with strong strategic suppliers who work both in local and global markets, will expand our business. We will ensure that all customers are satisfied with our service by delivering total customer support.

Hi Tech Automation will continue to recruit, develop, motivate and reward committed employees through superior leadership, from which we will ensure sustainable natural growth, and profitability.

Our business will be run in a socially responsible way, continually identify and implementing processes and working practices which protect the environment.

LATEST: CALL US ON 01536 312131 OR EMAIL sales@hitechautomation.comFOR OUR NEW MODULAR GRIPPER BROCHURE AND PRICES

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Robots, Automation, EOAT, Grippers, Conveyors, Guarding

Robotic Systems for Advanced Performance

If you want to improve the quality or productivity of an existing manual manufacturing/assembly process or lower the operating cost, DESHAZO can provide you with an engineered solution to meet your requirements. Our engineers will visit your site, observe your manufacturing processes and prepare a 3-D conceptual design of the equipment or system to meet your requirements. We employ the latest technology in design and manufacturing processes including SolidWorks, AutoCAD, Catia, and Robot Simulation software as well as CNC manufacturing equipment in our plant.

In addition, DESHAZO has the ability to analyze the financial benefits of a prospective automation project in your facility. Working with your personnel, we can assist in calculations on the projected improvement in productivity, quality and operating cost, as well as the return on investment of an automation project.

DESHAZO has the engineering and manufacturing expertise to design, build and install one work cell or a complete automation system in your facility to meet your requirements. We have the capability to handle all aspects of your automation project to provide a complete solution for your needs. We have experience in many industrial segments including steel manufacturing, foundry operations, appliance manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, construction machinery, consumer products and material handling. We have extensive experience in the following manufacturing processes:

DESHAZOs team has designed, built and installed all kinds of manual, semi-automated and fully automated assembly systems.

DESHAZO has developed solutions for virtually every type of testing and inspection situation, including mechanical, functional, electrical, and leak detection/flow measurement testing.

Whether youre working with simple gravity conveyors or complex, fully programmable sorting/inspection lines, DESHAZO can provide integrated material handling systems to suit your needs.

DESHAZO has developed robotic solutions for welding applications including precise laser welding, plastics joining, resistance welding and automated wire feed welding applications.

With DESHAZOs integrated control systems, you will be able to know, control, and react to everything that occurs in your operation. DESHAZO is proficient in the application of many controls systems including Allen Bradley, Omron, Mitsubishi, GE, and Toyopuc PLCs, as well as other custom computer programs and database design.

DESHAZO can provide you with robotic vision systems to perform quality control inspections, parts picking and other applications to lower hard tooling costs.

DESHAZO can provide you with a robotic packaging system that will determine what product goes into a particular package and then box the product.

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Automation - DESHAZO

Z-Wave is a wireless technology that literally puts the power of controlling and monitoring your home in the palm of your hand. By installing Z-Wave technology, your regular household appliances such as lights, thermostats, sprinklers and more transform into smart appliances. Z-Wave products communicate wirelessly and securely and can be accessed and controlled remotely. Z-wave allows you to access and monitor most appliances inside your home regardless of where you are. Enerwave has a large selection of Z-Wave products that all work together to ensure that you find the best products for your home.

ZigBee is an open global wireless network which provides the basis for the Internet of Things (IoT), by allowing both smart, and simple products to work together. ZigBee is a low cost, low power, energy efficient wireless mesh network which gives you the power to connect and control almost all of the products in your home. By installing ZigBee technology, it will automatically improve your comfort, and safety. It not only allows you to remotely control your home, it also keeps you safe by alerting you of smoke levels, carbon monoxide and even water leaks. Enerwave offers a wide variety of ZigBee products to bring simplicity and relaxation into your life.

For more information, visit http://www.zigbee.org/ and http://www.z-wave.com/.

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Home Automation - Enerwave Home Automation

Preventive & Predictive Maintenance

A computerized maintenance management system helps keep assets running and assists with meeting food safety audit requirements.

A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) can help food and beverage facility owners plan and schedule assets and labor to optimize overall plant efficiency and minimize downtime.

Automation Series

Remember the early days of data acquisition/collection systems?

TECH FLASH

Industrial security specialists will monitor industrial facilities around the world.

The company has joint locations in Europe and the US.

Automation

Better safe than sorry since "sorry" could cost you downtime, product quality or safety and/or your brands reputation.

According to the ICS-CERT (Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team) fiscal year 2015 final incident response statistics, the food and agriculture segment reported only two cyberattacks last year.

TECH FLASH

Pumped production lines can prove difficult for traditional inspection systems.

Installing a robust, reliable pipeline X-ray system can help.

TECH FLASH

Attracting more than 80,000 high school students, the 2016 FIRST Robotics Competition began earlier this month.

As partners of FIRST, the Automation Federation and ISA are encouraging their members to support the range of FIRST education programs.

Smart Manufacturing

The technology connecting people, machines, suppliers and processors is rapidly changing the manufacturing industry.

The concepts and technologies encompassed by the term Internet of Things are rapidly changing the world.

Tech Update: Collaborative Robots

Some robots find new freedom as they become aware of their surroundings and act accordingly.

For good reasons, robots have been kept behind safety fences as they perform jobs that are potentially dangerous and back-breaking to humans.

Tracking Systems

Once your product leaves the shipping dock, what happens in the supply chain could negate all your efforts to make it food safe and the high-quality brand leader it is.

Its 3:00 a.m. Do you know where your trailer of strawberries is?

Butterballs Corporate Project Manager Matt Giroux discusses line efficiency, technological advancements of line design, automation of lines and robotics on packaging lines.

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Automation | Food Engineering

"Domotics/Domotica" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Demotic.

Home automation or smart home[1] (also known as domotics or domotica) is the residential extension of building automation and involves the control and automation of lighting, heating (such as smart thermostats), ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC), and security, as well as home appliances such as washer/dryers, ovens or refrigerators/freezers that use WiFi for remote monitoring. Modern systems generally consist of switches and sensors connected to a central hub sometimes called a "gateway" from which the system is controlled with a user interface that is interacted either with a wall-mounted terminal, mobile phone software, tablet computer or a web interface, often but not always via internet cloud services.

While there are many competing vendors, there are very few world-wide accepted industry standards and the smart home space is heavily fragmented.[2] Popular communications protocol for products include X10, Ethernet, RS-485, 6LoWPAN, Bluetooth LE (BLE), ZigBee and Z-Wave, or other proprietary protocols all of which are incompatible with each other.[3] Manufacturers often prevent independent implementations by withholding documentation and by suing people.[4]

The home automation market was worth US$5.77 billion in 2015, predicted to have a market value over US$10 billion by the year 2020.[5]

The word "domotics" (and "domotica" when used as a verb) is a contraction of the Latin word for a home "domus" and the words/fields informatics, telematics and robotics.[citation needed]

Early home automation began with labor-saving machines. Self-contained electric or gas powered home appliances became viable in the 1900s with the introduction of electric power distribution[6] and led to the introduction of washing machines (1904), water heaters (1889), refrigerators, sewing machines, dishwashers, and clothes dryers.

In 1975, the first general purpose home automation network technology, X10, was developed. It is a communication protocol for electronic devices. It primarily uses electric power transmission wiring for signalling and control, where the signals involve brief radio frequency bursts of digital data, and remains the most widely available.[7] By 1978, X10 products included a 16 channel command console, a lamp module, and an appliance module. Soon after came the wall switch module and the first X10 timer.

By 2012, in the United States, according to ABI Research, 1.5 million home automation systems were installed.[8]

According to Li et. al. (2016) there are three generations of home automation:[9]

In a review of home automation devices, Consumer Reports found two main concerns for consumers:[16]

Microsoft Research found in 2011, that home automation could involve high cost of ownership, inflexibility of interconnected devices, and poor manageability.[18]

Historically systems have been sold as complete systems where the consumer relies on one vendor for the entire system including the hardware, the communications protocol, the central hub, and the user interface. However, there are now open source software systems which can be used with proprietary hardware.[18]

There are a wide variety of technology platforms, or protocols, on which a smart home can be built. Each one is, essentially, its own language. Each language speaks to the various connected devices and instructs them to perform a function.

The automation protocol transport has involved direct wire connectivity, powerline (UPB) and wireless hybrid and wireless.

Most of the protocols below are not open. All have an API.

Acronym explanation:

Home automation suffers from platform fragmentation and lack of technical standards[21][22][23][24][25][26] a situation where the variety of home automation devices, in terms of both hardware variations and differences in the software running on them, makes the task of developing applications that work consistently between different inconsistent technology ecosystems hard.[27] Customers may be hesitant to bet their IoT future on proprietary software or hardware devices that use proprietary protocols that may fade or become difficult to customize and interconnect.[28]

Home automation devices amorphous computing nature is also a problem for security, since patches to bugs found in the core operating system often do not reach users of older and lower-price devices.[29][30] One set of researchers say that the failure of vendors to support older devices with patches and updates leaves more than 87% of active devices vulnerable.[31][32]

Domestic patch panel, unstructured.

Laptop controller for automated sprinkler system

Well and booster pump automation

An ad for the Kitchen Computer in 1969.

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Home automation - Wikipedia

Build automation is the process of automating the creation of a software build and the associated processes including: compiling computer source code into binary code, packaging binary code, and running automated tests.

Historically, build automation was accomplished through makefiles. Today, there are two general categories of tools:[1]

Depending on the level of automation the following classification is possible:

A software list for each can be found in list of build automation software.

Build automation utilities allow the automation of simple, repeatable tasks. When using the tool, it will calculate how to reach the goal by executing tasks in the correct, specific order and running each task. The two ways build tools differ are task orient vs. product-oriented. Task oriented tools describe the dependency of networks in terms of a specific set task and product-oriented tools describe things in terms of the products they generate.[2]

Although build servers existed long before continuous integration servers, they are general synonymous with continuous integration servers, however a build server may also be incorporated into an ARA tool or ALM tool.

Server types

Automation is achieved through the use of a compile farm for either Distributed compilation or the execution of the utility step.[3] The distributed build process must have machine intelligence to understand the source code dependencies to execute the distributed build.

Build automation is considered the first step in moving toward implementing a culture of Continuous Delivery and DevOps. Build automation combined with Continuous Integration, deployment, application release automation, and many other processes help move an organization forward in establishing software delivery best practices.[4]

The advantages of build automation to software development projects include

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Build automation - Wikipedia

Idea in Brief The Threat

Automation has traditionally displaced workers, forcing them onto higher ground that machines have not yet claimed. Today, as artificial intelligence encroaches on knowledge work, it can be hard to see how humans will remain employed in large numbers.

The outlook is grim if computers continue to chip away relentlessly at the tasks currently performed by well-educated people. But if we reframe the use of machines as augmentation, human work can flourish and accomplish what was never before possible.

Some knowledge workers will step up to even higher levels of cognition; others will step aside and draw on forms of intelligence that machines lack. Some will step in, monitoring and adjusting computers decision making; others will step narrowly into highly specialized realms of expertise. Inevitably, some will step forward by creating next-generation machines and finding new ways for them to augment human strengths.

After hearing of a recent Oxford University study on advancing automation and its potential to displace workers, Yuh-Mei Hutt, of Tallahassee, Florida, wrote, The idea that half of todays jobs may vanish has changed my view of my childrens future. Hutt was reacting not only as a mother; she heads a business and occasionally blogs about emerging technologies. Familiar as she is with the upside of computerization, the downside looms large. How will they compete against AI? she asked. How will they compete against a much older and experienced workforce vying for even fewer positions?

Suddenly, it seems, people in all walks of life are becoming very concerned about advancing automation. And they should be: Unless we find as many tasks to give humans as we find to take away from them, all the social and psychological ills of joblessness will grow, from economic recession to youth unemployment to individual crises of identity. Thats especially true now that automation is coming to knowledge work, in the form of artificial intelligence. Knowledge workwhich well define loosely as work that is more mental than manual, involves consequential decision making, and has traditionally required a college educationaccounts for a large proportion of jobs in todays mature economies. It is the high ground to which humanity has retreated as machines have taken over less cognitively challenging work. But in the very foreseeable future, as the Gartner analyst Nigel Rayner says, many of the things executives do today will be automated.

What if we were to reframe the situation? What if, rather than asking the traditional questionWhat tasks currently performed by humans will soon be done more cheaply and rapidly by machines?we ask a new one: What new feats might people achieve if they had better thinking machines to assist them? Instead of seeing work as a zero-sum game with machines taking an ever greater share, we might see growing possibilities for employment. We could reframe the threat of automation as an opportunity for augmentation.

The two of us have been looking at cases in which knowledge workers collaborate with machines to do things that neither could do well on their own. And as automation makes greater incursions into their workplaces, these people respond with a surprisingly broad repertoire of moves. Conventional wisdom is that as machines threaten their livelihood, humans must invest in ever higher levels of formal education to keep ahead. In truth, as we will discuss below, smart people are taking five approaches to making their peace with smart machines.

David Autor, an economist at MIT who closely tracks the effects of automation on labor markets, recently complained that journalists and expert commentators overstate the extent of machine substitution for human labor and ignore the strong complementarities that increase productivity, raise earnings, and augment demand for skilled labor. He pointed to the immense challenge of applying machines to any tasks that call for flexibility, judgment, or common sense, and then pushed his point further. Tasks that cannot be substituted by computerization are generally complemented by it, he wrote. This point is as fundamental as it is overlooked.

A search for the complementarities to which Autor was referring is at the heart of what we call an augmentation strategy. It stands in stark contrast to the automation strategies that efficiency-minded enterprises have pursued in the past. Automation starts with a baseline of what people do in a given job and subtracts from that. It deploys computers to chip away at the tasks humans perform as soon as those tasks can be codified. Aiming for increased automation promises cost savings but limits us to thinking within the parameters of work that is being accomplished today.

Smart machines can be our partners and collaborators in creative problem solving.

Augmentation, in contrast, means starting with what humans do today and figuring out how that work could be deepened rather than diminished by a greater use of machines. Some thoughtful knowledge workers see this clearly. Camille Nicita, for example, is the CEO of Gongos, a company in metropolitan Detroit that helps clients gain consumer insightsa line of work that some would say is under threat as big data reveals all about buying behavior. Nicita concedes that sophisticated decision analytics based on large data sets will uncover new and important insights. But, she says, that will give her people the opportunity to go deeper and offer clients context, humanization, and the why behind big data. Her shop will increasingly go beyond analysis and translate that data in a way that informs business decisions through synthesis and the power of great narrative. Fortunately, computers arent very good at that sort of thing.

Intelligent machines, Nicita thinksand this is the core belief of an augmentation strategydo not usher people out the door, much less relegate them to doing the bidding of robot overlords. In some cases these machines will allow us to take on tasks that are superiormore sophisticated, more fulfilling, better suited to our strengthsto anything we have given up. In other cases the tasks will simply be different from anything computers can do well. In almost all situations, however, they will be less codified and structured; otherwise computers would already have taken them over.

We propose a change in mindset, on the part of both workers and providers of work, that will lead to different outcomesa change from pursuing automation to promoting augmentation. This seemingly simple terminological shift will have deep implications for how organizations are managed and how individuals strive to succeed. Knowledge workers will come to see smart machines as partners and collaborators in creative problem solving.

This new mindset could change the future.

Lets assume that computers are going to make their mark in your line of work. Indeed, lets posit that software will soon perform most of the cognitive heavy lifting you do in your job and, as far as the essential day-to-day operation of the enterprise is concerned, make decisions as good as (probably better than) those made by 90% of the people who currently hold it. What should your strategy be to remain gainfully employed? From an augmentation perspective, people might renegotiate their relationship to machines and realign their contributions in five ways.

Your best strategy may be to head for still higher intellectual ground. There will always be jobs for people who are capable of more big-picture thinking and a higher level of abstraction than computers are. In essence this is the same advice that has always been offered and taken as automation has encroached on human work: Let the machine do the things that are beneath you, and take the opportunity to engage with higher-order concerns.

Niven Narain, a cancer researcher, provides a great example. In 2005 he cofounded Berg, a start-up in Framingham, Massachusetts, to apply artificial intelligence to the discovery of new drugs. Bergs facility has high-throughput mass spectrometers that run around the clock and produce trillions of data points from their analysis of blood and tissue, along with powerful computers that look for patterns suggesting that certain molecules could be effective. The last thing you want to do now, Narain told a reporter in March 2015, is have a hundred biochemistsgoing through this data and saying, Oh, I kind of like this one over here. But he also employs a hundred biochemists. Their objective is not to crunch all those numbers and produce a hypothesis about a certain molecules potential. Rather, they pick up at the point where the math leaves off, the machine has produced a hypothesis, and the investigation of its viability begins.

Narain stepped up by seeing an opportunity to develop drugs in a new way. That takes lots of experience, insight, and the ability to understand quickly how the world is changing. Likewise, one interpretation of the success of todays ultrarich Wall Street investment bankers and hedge fund titans is that they have stepped up above automated trading and portfolio management systems.

If stepping up is your chosen approach, you will probably need a long education. A masters degree or a doctorate will serve you well as a job applicant. Once inside an organization, your objective must be to stay broadly informed and creative enough to be part of its ongoing innovation and strategy efforts. Ideally youll aspire to a senior management role and thus seize the opportunities you identify. Listen to Barney Harford, the CEO of Orbitza business that has done more than most to eliminate knowledge worker jobs. To hire for the tasks he still requires people to do, Harford looks for T-shaped individuals. Orbitz needs people who can go really deep in their particular area of expertise, he says, and also go really broad and have that kind of curiosity about the overall organization and how their particular piece of the pie fits into it. Thats good guidance for any knowledge worker who wants to step up: Start thinking more syntheticallyin the old sense of that term. Find ways to rely on machines to do your intellectual spadework, without losing knowledge of how they do it. Harford has done that by applying machine learning to the generation of algorithms that match customers with the travel experiences they desire.

Stepping up may be an option for only a small minority of the labor force. But a lot of brain work is equally valuable and also cannot be codified. Stepping aside means using mental strengths that arent about purely rational cognition but draw on what the psychologist Howard Gardner has called our multiple intelligences. You might focus on the interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligencesknowing how to work well with other people and understanding your own interests, goals, and strengths.

The legendary thoroughbred trainer D. Wayne Lukas cant articulate exactly how he manages to see the potential in a yearling. He just does. Apples revered designer Jonathan Ive cant download his taste to a computer. Ricky Gervais makes people laugh at material a machine would never dream up. Do they all use computers in their daily work lives? Unquestionably. But their genius has been to discover the ineffable strengths they possess and to spend as much time as possible putting them to work. Machines can perform numerous ancillary tasks that would otherwise encroach on the ability of these professionals to do what they do best.

We dont want to create the impression that stepping aside is purely for artists. Senior lawyers, for example, are thoroughly versed in the law but are rarely their firms deep-dive experts on all its fine points. They devote much of their energy to winning new work (usually the chief reason they get promoted) and acting as wise counselors to their clients. With machines digesting legal documents and suggesting courses of action and arguments, senior lawyers will have more capacity to do the rest of their job well. The same is true for many other professionals, such as senior accountants, architects, investment bankers, and consultants.

Take the realm of elder care, in which robotics manufacturers see great potential for automation. This isnt often treated as a nuanced or a particularly intellectual line of human work. We were struck, therefore, by a recent essay by the teacher, coach, and blogger Heather Plett. She wrote of her mothers palliative care provider, She was holding space for us, and explained: What does it mean to hold space for someone else? It means that we are willing to walk alongside another person in whatever journey theyre on without judging them, making them feel inadequate, trying to fix them, or trying to impact the outcome. When we hold space for other people, we open our hearts, offer unconditional support, and let go of judgement and control.

True, hospice care is an extreme example of a situation requiring the human touch. But empathy is valuable in any setting that has customers, coworkers, and owners.

If stepping aside is your strategy, you need to focus on your uncodifiable strengths, first discovering them and then diligently working to heighten them. In the process you should identify other masters of the tacit trade youre pursuing and find ways to work with them, whether as collaborator or apprentice. You may have to develop a greater respect for the intelligences you have beyond IQ, which decades of schooling might well have devalued. These, too, can be deliberately honedthey are no more or less God-given than your capacity for calculus.

Back in 1967, having witnessed the first attempts to automate knowledge work, Peter Drucker declared of the computer: Its a total moron. Its a lot less moronic now, but its relentless logic still occasionally arrives at decisions whose improvement wouldnt require a human genius.

Perhaps you saw a 2014 story in the New York Times about a man who had just changed jobs and applied to refinance his mortgage. Even though hed had a steady government job for eight years and a steady teaching job for more than 20 years before that, he was turned down for the loan. The automated system that evaluated his application recognized that the projected payments were well within his income level, but it was smart enough to seize on a risk marker: His new career would involve a great deal more variation and uncertainty in earnings.

Or maybe that system wasnt so smart. The man was Ben Bernanke, a former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, who had just signed a book contract for more than a million dollars and was headed for a lucrative stint on the lecture circuit. This is a prime example of why, when computers make decisions, we will always need people who can step in and save us from their worst tendencies.

A lot of brain workincluding empathycannot be codified.

Those capable of stepping in know how to monitor and modify the work of computers. Taxes may increasingly be done by computer, but smart accountants look out for the mistakes that automated programsand the programs human usersoften make. Ad buying in digital marketing is almost exclusively automated these days, but only people can say when some programmatic buy would actually hurt the brand and how the logic behind it might be tuned.

Here you might ask, Just who is augmenting whom (or what) in this situation? Its a good moment to emphasize that in an augmentation environment, support is mutual. The human ensures that the computer is doing a good job and makes it better. This is the point being made by all those people who encourage more STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education. They envision a work world largely made up of stepping-in positions. But if this is your strategy, youll also need to develop your powers of observation, translation, and human connection.

This approach involves finding a specialty within your profession that wouldnt be economical to automate. In Boston, near the headquarters of Dunkin Donuts, a reporter recently peered into the secret world of the Dunkin Donuts franchise kings. One of them, Gary Joyal, makes a good living (if his Rolls-Royce is any indication) by connecting buyers and sellers of Dunkin Donuts franchises. As the Boston Globe put it, Joyal uses his encyclopedic knowledge of franchiseesand often their family situations, income portfolios, and estate plansto make himself an indispensable player for buyers and sellers alike. So far he has helped to broker half a billion dollars worth of deals.

Could Joyals encyclopedic knowledge be encoded in software? Probably. But no one would make enough doing so to put a Rolls in the driveway. Its just too small a category. The same is true of Claire Bustarrets work. Johns Hopkins Magazine reports that Bustarret has made a career out of knowing paper like other French people know wine. Her ability to determine from a sheets texture, feel, and fibers when and where the paper was made is extremely valuable to historians and art authenticators. Maybe what she knows could be put in a database, and her analytical techniques could be automated. But in the meantime, she would have learned more.

Those who step narrowly find such niches and burrow deep inside them. They are hedgehogs to the stepping-up foxes among us. Although most of them have the benefit of a formal education, the expertise that fuels their earning power is gained through on-the-job trainingand the discipline of focus. If this is your strategy, start making a name for yourself as the person who goes a mile deep on a subject an inch wide. That wont mean you cant also have other interests, but professionally youll have a very distinct brand. How might machines augment you? Youll build your own databases and routines for keeping current, and connect with systems that combine your very specialized output with that of others.

Finally, stepping forward means constructing the next generation of computing and AI tools. Its still true that behind every great machine is a personin fact, many people. Someone decides that the Dunkin Franchise Optimizer is a bad investment, or that the application of AI to cancer drug discovery is a good one. Someone has to build the next great automated insurance-underwriting solution. Someone intuits the human need for a better system; someone identifies the part of it that can be codified; someone writes the code; and someone designs the conditions under which it will be applied.

Clearly this is a realm in which knowledge workers need strong skills in computer science, artificial intelligence, and analytics. In his book Data-ism, Steve Lohr offers stories of some of the people doing this work. For example, at the E. & J. Gallo Winery, an executive named Nick Dokoozlian teams up with Hendrik Hamann, a member of IBMs research staff, to find a way to harness the data required for precision agriculture at scale. In other words, they want to automate the painstaking craft of giving each grapevine exactly the care and feeding it needs to thrive. This isnt amateur hour. Hamann is a physicist with a thorough knowledge of IBMs prior application of networked sensors. Dokoozlian earned his doctorate in plant physiology at what Lohr informs us is the MIT of wine sciencethe University of California at Davisand then taught there for 15 years. Were tempted to say that this team knows wine the way some French people know paper.

Stepping forward means bringing about machines next level of encroachment, but it involves work that is itself highly augmented by software. A glance at Hamanns LinkedIn page is sufficient to make the point: Hes been endorsed by contacts for his expert use of simulations, algorithms, machine learning, mathematical modeling, and more. But spotting the right next opportunity for automation requires much more than technical chops. If this is your strategy, youll reach the top of your field if you can also think outside the box, perceive where todays computers fall short, and envision tools that dont yet exist. Someday, perhaps, even a lot of software development will be automated; but as Bill Gates recently observed, programming is safe for now.

Our conversations to date with professionals in a wide range of fieldsradiologists, financial advisers, teachers, architects, journalists, lawyers, accountants, marketers, and other experts of many kindssuggest that whatever the field, any of the five steps weve just laid out is possible. Not all of them are right for a given individual, but if you can figure out which one is right for you, youll be on your way to an augmentation strategy.

You might not get very far, however, if employers in your field dont buy in to augmentation. The world suffers from an automation mindset today, after all, because businesses have taken us down that path. Managers are always acutely aware of the downside of human employeesor, to use the technologists favored dysphemism for them, wetware. Henry Ford famously said, Why is it every time I ask for a pair of hands, they come with a brain attached?

For augmentation to work, employers must be convinced that the combination of humans and computers is better than either working alone. That realization will dawn as it becomes increasingly clear that enterprise success depends much more on constant innovation than on cost efficiency. Employers have tended to see machines and people as substitute goods: If one is more expensive, it makes sense to swap in the other. But that makes sense only under static conditions, when we can safely assume that tomorrows tasks will be the same as todays.

Yuh-Mei Hutt told us that in her small business (Golden Lighting, a manufacturer of residential fixtures), automation has made operations much more efficient. But that means profitability depends now more than ever on the creativity of her people. Her designers need to know about trends in the interior design world and in lighting technology and must find fresh ways to pull them together. Her salespeople rely on CRM software, but their edge comes from how well they connect in person with retail buyers.

In an era of innovation, the emphasis has to be on the upside of people. They will always be the source of next-generation ideas and the element of operations that is hardest for competitors to replicate. (If you think employees today lack loyalty, you havent noticed how fast software takes up with your rivals.) Yes, people are variable and unpredictable; capable of selfishness, boredom, and dishonesty; hard to teach and quick to tireall things that robots are not. But with the proper augmentation, you can get the most out of the positive qualities on which they also hold a monopoly. As computerization turns everything that can be programmed into table stakes, those are the only qualities that will set you apart.

To be sure, many of the things knowledge workers do today will soon be automated. For example, the future role of humans in financial advising isnt fully clear, but its unlikely that those who remain in the field will have as their primary role recommending an optimal portfolio of stocks and bonds. In a recent conversation, one financial adviser seemed worried: Our advice to clients isnt fully automated yet, he said, but its feeling more and more robotic. My comments to clients are increasingly supposed to follow a script, and we are strongly encouraged to move clients into the use of these online tools. He expressed his biggest fear outright: Im thinking that over time they will phase us out altogether. But the next words out of his mouth more than hinted at his salvation: Reading scripts is obviously something a computer can do; convincing a client to invest more money requires some more skills. Im already often more of a psychiatrist than a stockbroker.

Thats not a step down. Its at least a step aside, and probably a step up. The adviser and his firm need only to see it that way and then build on it. For the foreseeable future, prompting savers and investors to make wiser financial choices will not be an automated task.

The strategy that will work in the long term, for employers and the employed, is to view smart machines as our partners and collaborators in knowledge work. By emphasizing augmentation, we can remove the threat of automation and turn the race with the machine into a relay rather than a dash. Those who are able to smoothly transfer the baton to and from a computer will be the winners.

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Beyond Automation - hbr.org

Home automation is The Internet of Things"The way that all of our devices and appliances will be networked together to provide us with a seamless control over all aspects of our home and more. Home automation has been around from many decades in terms of lighting and simple appliance control, and only recently has technology caught up for the idea of the interconnected world, allowing full control of your home from anywhere, to become a reality. With home automation, you dictate how a device should react, when it should react, and why it should react. You set the schedule and the rest is automated and based off of your personal preferences thus providing convenience, control, money savings, and an overall smarter home. Home automation can also alert you to events that you might want to know about right-away while you are gone like water leaks and unexpected access to your home, or any part of it. At any time, you can grab your iPhone, Android device or other remote control and change the settings in your house as desired.

Over the past few decades many companies have entered the home automation sector...

Control and automate just about every device and appliance within your home whether you are at home or far away. We've all gotten used to controlling our TV from the couch; just wait until you are able to dim the lights as well.

Imagine adjusting the temperature from your bed or controlling the volume of your whole-house audio system from any room. Or imagine the wall/ceiling heater in your bathroom coming on automatically on chilly mornings 5 minutes before your alarm clock goes off so that it is warm when you enter. Many Smarthome products also save energy -- we'll all agree that's a nice convenience.

Always on guard and at the ready, home automation provides security, safeguarding your home. From a security cameras peering eye to a water sensor that will alert you of a possible costly leak, an automated home keeps your property under surveillance so you can react at a moments notice.

We're all used to opening the garage door from the car, but you'll be surprised how much safer you'll feel coming home to a lit home and even turning on more lights from your keyfob remote upon your arrival. With a couple of basic products you can have your whole house light up like Fort Knox when there is motion detected at any corner of your house. Imagine your house sending you an email if there is motion where there shouldn't be any. Or you can have your security system call you if there is an alarm, which might include your typical security alarm or even a low or high temperature or water in the laundry room or basement.

Home automation works efficiently for you, saving money on your utilities and providing overall convenience.

Home automation gets you involved. Set your personal preferences and actions, then sit back and enjoy using the latest in home automation technology. Though such technology is quite complex, it remains completely flexible and user friendly making for a fun experience.High-tech products for the home are fun to use and share with others. Whether viewing visitors at your front door on your TV or tuning your stereo by using voice recognition, you'll find home automation surprisingly enjoyable. And when it comes to impressing the friends, you'll be happy to show off your newfound applications.

With the broad selection of home automation products offered by Smarthome, you can control just about anything you wish in your home. If you have questions about a particular product please contact our expert technical support team - they're happy to help you find exactly what you are looking for.

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What is Home Automation? | Home Automation Systems

Why Buy a Home Automation System?

Editor's note: ADT recently announced the completion of a merger with Protection 1. Although the two companies currently operate independently, both will eventually operate exclusively under the ADT brand. When ADT and Protection 1 complete this brand integration, we will update our home automation system reviews to reflect that information.

The top performers in our review are Crestron, the Gold Award winner; Control4, the Silver Award winner; andSavant, the Bronze Award winner. Heres more on choosing a provider to meet your needs, along with detail on how we arrived at our ranking of 10 systems.

With home automation systems, you can forever banish concerns of overly expensive utility bills and stop wondering whether or not you locked the front door. These high-tech solutions can help make your home into a smart home. In fact, a smart home system can control every light, appliance and compatible peripheral in your home.

This burgeoning industry offers a choice selection of products from respected manufacturers. Weve compiled a list of the best home automation systems available and ranked them based on their offerings in a variety of categories. Our evaluation focuses exclusively on professionally installed automation systems, sometimes called smart home as a service or SHaaS. However, if you want a more-affordable, less-complete option, check out our DIY home automation review. For additional information, see our articles on home automation systems.

Professionally installed home automation is a serious investment, not a hobby or a gimmick. Getting a home automation system is on the same level as remodeling your home in cost and complexity. Our research revealed a few ways you can rein in your expectations so you can find a system that works best for you.

Types of Systems There are two kinds of professional home automation systems in our review: whole-house automation and home security systems. Whole-house automation systems from Control4, Crestron, Elan, RTI, Savant and URC tend to be more expensive but have more features and connectivity, especially in terms of home theaters. Whole-home automation usually requires custom wiring and programming, which can take weeks to prepare in some cases.

Home security systems such as ADT, MONI, Protection 1 and Vivint, primarily focus on home security but offer home automation upgrades. These upgrades do not approach the same level of complexity or customization that whole-house automation companies offer, notably with a lack of home theater integration. This professional solution is usually more affordable and includes home security monitoring. Mobile apps are common in both system types.

A Stable Market with Local Dealers Home automation has existed since the 1970s in one form or another, almost always in luxury homes, businesses and schools. Whole-home systems rely on local dealers, also called integrators, in most states. These dealers act as resellers and install and set up equipment. Home security systems are more widespread with larger installer networks. Only in the last decade have DIY systems appeared, but these havent found traction in many homes.

Worry-Free Compatibility Unlike DIY home automation, equipment compatibility is one less thing to think about when you work with a dealer. The dealer figures out which products work together ahead of time and then offers a variety of solutions that provide the features you want for your home. On the manufacturer side of things, most companies offer every piece of equipment you could want while also supporting hundreds of third-party products.

A Big Price Tag Professional automation systems are a luxury, which should give you an idea of how much they cost. According to CE Pro, a publication for home automation integrators, the average whole-home automation system installation costs around $25,000. Much of this cost comes from hardware such as home theater components and security camera systems.

For simpler projects, you can expect to spend between $2,000 and $5,000 to add smart locks, lighting, thermostats and sensors to a modest home. The cost comes from a combination of an expensive home automation controller and the sheer number of less-expensive devices that can add up quickly. Many home control systems also require custom programming on a home-by-home basis, since few smart homes are alike. A home automation system adds value to your home but not without upfront investment.

Home Theater Integration This is the single most expensive part of a whole-home automation system. This is because of the controllers that allow you to send audio and video to rooms throughout your home. The rest of the cost associated with home theaters comes from audio equipment, such as speakers and amplifiers, and video equipment such as projectors, TVs and AV receivers.

The cost and complexity of the systems in this category limit the amount of hands-on testing we can do. We approach our evaluations from the point of view of a potential customer starting research. Our evaluations are based on discussions with dealers, manufacturer offerings, brochures and in-house research. Most of the differences in professional home automation systems are superficial, but we highlighted the biggest ones we could find.

Customer Education Resources The best home automation companies offer case studies, brochures and galleries. These showcase different projects in which the companys technology played a major role. We looked at the showcases offered by each company to get an idea of what each system can do. Companies with detailed descriptions and multiple examples did better than those that only showed photos of completed projects.

Ease of Finding a Dealer We visited the websites of the companies in our review and looked for ways to contact dealers near our office. The most effective companies have clear calls to action on their homepages. This is usually an interactive dealer map, a form or a phone number you can use to get information. Control4, for example, has a form on its homepage that helps you get a quote, and it is one of the clearest calls to action we saw.

Number of Hardware Partners We looked at each of the companies in our review to get a rough estimate of how many brands work with each automated home system. Manufacturers that support many brands score higher than those that support fewer since they give you more choices. The best home automation systems partner with hundreds of brands. This is important if you have a favorite brand like Bose or Sony that you want to include in your system.

Customer Support Options As a general rule, a dealer is going to be your first, and maybe only, point of contact with some home automation companies. Dealers have an advantage of being available to make service calls to your home but often charge a fee to do so. Since we cant evaluate all of the thousands of dealers across the U.S., we looked at the companies directly to see what they offer in terms of direct customer support. If theres even the faintest glimmer of direct customer support, we gave the company extra credit.

Our evaluation is designed to provide you with useful information that helps you decide which system to use in your home. For our home automation system evaluations, we researched each manufacturers offerings and looked at how the company communicates with its customers. The companies have no input on our evaluation methodology, and our rankings were not shared with them prior to publication.

When you decide you want a home automation system, aside from setting a reasonable budget, there are only two things you need to consider: what and who. Getting what you want is as simple as finding the right focus for your smart home. From there, decide who should install it. Here are a few tips to help you decide the what and who of your smart home system.

Determine Your Focus Focus only on features you want. As a general rule, whole-home automation has elements of control, security, utilities and entertainment. Home security companies offer the first three but have no support for entertainment. These categories are not mutually exclusive; for example, lighting plays a role in all four. Once you have a focus, you can go to a dealer and tell them what you want to do.

Control These devices add convenience by helping you create schedules, rules and smartphone controls. Common examples are light switches, garage door openers, thermostats and window treatments.

Security Technology in this category protects your family, belongings and property by monitoring for and deterring intruders. Examples are door sensors, motion detectors, smoke detectors, smart locks, security cameras and sirens.

Utilities Using these devices, you can improve your homes energy efficiency, which helps you save on gas, electric or water bills. Examples include thermostats, sprinkler controllers, leak detectors and window treatments.

Entertainment These are audio-video devices and home theater equipment. Universal remotes sometimes work with DIY smart homes to control TVs, home audio systems and streaming sticks.

Find a Local Dealer Most major cities have a few home automation dealers. To find the right one for you, its a good idea to get competing quotes from the integrators in your area. With quotes in hand, learn about each dealers certifications, setup process and whether it can help you get security monitoring services.

Certifications Look for dealers that are members of the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association, or CEDIA. CEDIA has a strong code of ethics and helps installers stay up to date with the latest technology certifications. In addition to CEDIA membership, make sure the dealer is certified to work with popular home automation products.

System Setup Choose a dealer only after it gives you a detailed explanation of the changes it needs to make to your home such as removing drywall and installing wiring. If the dealer doesnt give you a written contract of everything it plans to do before it starts, then find a dealer that will. A verbal contract is an invitation to overpriced installations that can bust your budget.

Monitoring Services Ask if the dealer offers home security monitoring or can connect you to a security company that monitors home automation systems. In general, if you dont have door sensors, motion sensors or security cameras, you probably dont need monitoring and shouldnt buy it if the dealer insists.

Whether you use your system as a universal remote or have automatic tasks that run in the background, you can expect to interact with it every day. Idle systems are a great way to underutilize your investment make them work for you. Here are a couple items every home automation system owner should know.

Learn the Ropes Take time to study the manual, mobile app and other tools you have access to. Look at all of the components that make up your system and see how mobile app controls them. By familiarizing yourself with the app, you can find lights, create presets and know where in the menu everything is. In most systems, you can set up schedules to control devices such as your thermostat and exterior lights.

When to Call the Dealer Aside from occasionally replacing batteries in a sensor or dusting off your equipment, there isnt much maintenance you can do on your own without voiding the warranty. If your system is under warranty, you should be able to replace your defective components at no cost. Its possible that you might pay a service fee, even with a warranty check with your dealer to see when they charge for service calls.

If you dont have a warranty, set priorities instead of calling the dealer any time a component stops working. Your highest priorities should fall under security and utilities, which should be fixed as soon as possible after they break. If a security camera fails, your home can become more vulnerable to thieves. Likewise, if the thermostat goes on the fritz, discomfort or high energy bills can result. Control and entertainment devices in the system may be inconvenient if they go offline, but if theres no threat to your security or comfort, you can get them fixed as your budget allows.

Warranty Coverage When you work with a dealer, keep in mind that it may offer a separate warranty from that of the manufacturer. Check to make sure the dealers warranty covers installation, labor and offers coverage for at least a year. For defective hardware, many dealers work with manufacturers to get replacement parts so you dont have to contact the manufacturer directly. The best home automation systems offer lifetime warranties or warranties around three years.

It can be hard to choose a home management system when there are so many good options on the market. Our recommendations come from each systems standout feature, since thats a good baseline to start from in your own research. Our top three home automation systems showcase the best the industry has to offer.

For our Gold Award winner, Crestron, theres literally no project too big. This system is compatible with thousands of products from hundreds of manufacturers, more than any other company in our review. The systems software is fully customizable from top to bottom, which is one of the reasons it expands beyond residential installations into commercial applications at schools, hotels and businesses. It takes an experienced dealer and a lot of time to install a Crestron system.

Control4, our Silver Award winner, is the top residential brand in our review. The system integrates software and hardware seamlessly without the need for a dealer to do intensive programming. This helps bring down installation costs while also creating a capable system that can be expanded by the dealer as your needs change. Control4 offers a strong selection of in-house hardware as well as support for hundreds of other manufacturers. Control4s Composer Home Edition is home automation software that lets you create schedules and custom programs without calling the dealer.

Our Bronze Award winner, Savant, has a design with a lot of visual appeal. The sleek, glossy hardware evokes the same visual cues as Apple products. Not only does Savant Pro have a full line of professional products, but it also has a few DIY smart home products with an entertainment focus. For example, the Savant Remote comes with a high-resolution touchscreen, a simple button layout and voice control, something not found in many universal remotes. The advantage of the DIY remote is that you can get a feel for Savant systems before committing to a full professional installation.

Outside of the top three, RTI was the only other product in our review that had everything we looked for in a good home automation system, helping it earn a Top Ten Reviews Excellence Award. MONI, ADT and Vivint get honorable mention as home automation companies with extensive dealer networks, and they are the only products in our review with lifetime warranty coverage.

Finding the right verdict in this evaluation was tricky. Part of the appeal of professional home automation systems is that they can automate almost anything in your home, which is why we cant make solid recommendations on the hardware capabilities of a particular system over another. However, whole-house automation systems offer a more complete smart home experience than home security systems. Home security systems are a better way to get into professional automation for most people since they dont require complex installation and programming. In the end, the best advice we can give you is to use our reviews to choose the best smart home system for your needs.

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The Best Home Automation Systems of 2016 | Top Ten Reviews

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