Industrial automation is a difficult market in which to introduce
any new technology. The rate of acceptance of any new
technology in industry is relatively slow compared to the commercial,
office, or home markets. Even when technology is well
accepted by one of the more visible markets, there are special
environmental problems that must be overcome. Security and
privacy are different in the industrial automation market as
well. Reliability, however, is often the factor where some measurable
difference in implementation is required from other
markets.

3.1 Environmental

There are two generally accepted submarkets within industrial
automation:

• factory automation
• process automation

Factory automation generally encompasses both machine
shops, where metal cutting is involved in the manufacture of
products; and assembly, where parts are fabricated into finished
products. Additionally, in factory automation, materials
handling, movement, or conveying is normally required to
move raw materials, work-in-progress, and final products
within the shop floor and to/from shipping locations. The factory
is often dirty, dusty, oily, noisy, filled with vibration, and
electrically noisy because of all the electrical motors used to
power equipment. Temperature, while often uncontrolled, is
usually suitable for human inhabitation. Except for wash-down
conditions, the factory floor is rarely wet.

In contrast, process automation often occurs in plants located
out-of-doors, and the production is usually hidden from the
plant operators since it usually lies inside pipes, tubes, and
pressure vessels. The products are often fluids, thus leading to
the label fluid process industries. Often the products and the
intermediates are volatile and sometimes flammable or poisonous
to humans. In most cases, the fluids are corrosive as well.
Here too, electrical noise is usually high because of all the electrical
motors used to power mixers and pumps. Temperature is
uncontrolled except for the places, typically called control
rooms, which are intended for human habitation. The process
area is typically subject to all types of atmospheric conditions,
including rain, snow, ice, wind, and direct sunshine.