You're certainly familiar with the saying about industrial automation, control, and machines which goes like, necessity is the mother of invention, right?  Surviving and thriving in today's tough economic and competitive times has spawned all sorts of creativity in business and industry.  Business leaders and industrial automation, control, and machine engineers, by necessity, have had to become inventors to solve a myriad of problems just to stay in business.

Tracing back industrial automation, control & PLC's

Take for example the PLC (Programmable Logic Controller).  Something that had it's start in the automotive industry can now be found throughout all areas of industry.  [By the way, you can read a good article about the PLC when you click on Wikipedia.]  And the creative necessity in the automotive industry made those engineers in the 1960's inventors!

Who's who in the world of industrial automation, control & PLC's?

Actually, that's nothing really new.  There are a lot of engineer/inventors throughout history of industrial automation, control, & PLCs.  Take for instance Leonardo da Vinci.   He drew plans for several flying machines, including a helicopter, a hang glider, as well as many military machines.  Additionally, da Vinci may have made a great civil engineer as shown from his plans for a 720-foot bridge that was turned into a reality not too long ago.

Another industrial automation, control, & PLC engineer/inventor is Eli Whitney.   He invented the first cotton gin.  Whitney is also credited with the creation of interchangeable parts. Oddly enough, the ability to interchange parts is thought to be a much more important and long lasting invention than the cotton gin (although that is all he is usually remembered for).

Orville and Wilbur Wright, otherwise known as the Wright Brothers, are credited with the creation of a practical airplane.  They actually wrote a patent application in 1903 which was rejected.  Eventually, a patent was granted to them in 1906.  Again, creative necessity turned these industrial automation, control, & machine engineers into inventors or is it inventors into engineers?

The bottom line when it comes to industrial automation, control & PLC's

While much has changed and the pace seems to be faster than ever, the overriding need for solutions to problems and challenges motivates men and women to create.  And that is certainly true when it comes to the driving force behind so many of the products, industrial automation, control, & PLC systems we enjoy today in the business and industrial arena.  Without the creative genius hard at work in the industrial automation, control, and test equipment areas, things might still get done.  But it would look quite different and probably take a lot longer when all is said and done.

Introduction to Industrial Automation, Control, & PLC Ladder Logic Training Video, Part 1