Instrumentation Automation & Control Systems Training from Abhisam

WHAT IS INSTRUMENTATION? WHAT ARE AUTOMATION & CONTROL SYSTEMS?

Instrumentation is that branch of engineering that deals with measurement instruments (hence the word Instrumentation). This is a multidisciplinary branch and practitioners need to be adept in various engineering domains such as Chemical, Mechanical, Electrical & Electronics  with a fair amount of Computer Science also thrown in. When you see all those dials and gauges (and now graphic displays) on a Control Panel (whether it is to control an industrial plant or an aircraft), it is all part of Instrumentation Engineering.

Abhisam’s Instrumentation training courses help you master these subjects online, easily, at a fraction of the costs that you would have to pay for learning these in a traditional classroom type training class.

So how is it related to Automation?  And what about Control Systems? Well, if you want to control something (again it may be an industrial plant or an aircraft or any piece of machinery), you first need to measure some things. Only when you measure and get constant feedback from the equipment, can you hope to control it. If you can control it as per your wishes, or as per your algorithm, then you can also make it automatic.

Hence Instrumentation, Automation & Control are all deeply intertwined with each other and considered part of the same discipline.

Importance of Instrumentation Automation In Today’s World

The world is increasingly moving, inexorably towards more sensors (more Instrumentation) and more automation. So this is a fast growing discipline. Many things that were not possible to be automated in previous decades, are rapidly on the way to becoming automated (think self driving cars, for instance).

As computational power becomes cheaper and more ubiquitous (meaning available everywhere), as more sensors and measurement technologies become available,  the field of Instrumentation, Automation & Control will keep on growing in importance.

What is Industrial Automation?

Industrial Automation refers to those systems that are used to automate and control Industrial processes. These Industrial Control and Automation systems are responsible for controlling the vast majority of industrial operations like manufacturing steel, chemicals, plastics, rubber, textiles, food and beverages, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, production and refining of oil & gas, automobiles, discrete parts manufacturing,  generation of electric power and so on.

These systems are also present in installations like electrical distribution systems (electrical grids), operation and control of water treatment plants, operation of dams that handle enormous quantities of water, effluent treatment plants and even building automation systems that control Heating/ Ventilation / Air conditioning (HVAC) in buildings. Simply put, they are prevalent everywhere. 

These systems include DCS (Distributed Control Systems), PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems). The systems that are used to ensure safety (Safety Instrumented Systems- SIS for short) are also considered part of Industrial Automation.

In addition to these, industrial plants have a large variety of sensors, transmitters, switches, valves, actuators and motors that actually operate the processes.