soft automation

[′sȯft ‚ȯd·ə′mā·shən]

(engineering)

Automatic control, chiefly through the use of computer processing, with relatively little reliance on computer hardware.

hard automation

A non-programmable robotic system. Hard automation systems must be physically altered to change their function but often yield the fastest operation.

Soft Automation
Soft automation robots are programmable, and changes can be made in the computer. Soft automation robots tend to be slower than hard automation devices.

Flexible Automation
More costly than hard or soft automation, flexible automation robots often have interchangeable parts, and they can operate at low or high speeds. Flexible automation is suited for robots that must be routinely changed for different operations. See robot.

Mentioned in ?

hard automation

References in periodicals archive ?

His honeymoon was butchered by the trilogy with Wicklow two years ago while last year he threw himself into setting up an engineering business, Control Soft Automation Systems, with three others in Dundalk.

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As an integral part of a soft automation solution, SoftLogix 5 can run on either Allen-Bradley's industrial workstations, 1747-OC controller, or any Pentium-class PC, and works with Allen-Bradley 1746, 1771, or Flex I/O running on either Remote I/O, or ODVA's DeviceNet networks.