For those in the US, regardless of anyone's opinion on the president elect, his stated policy plans are extremely isolationist which will make our work improving manufacturing capabilities in our borders more important than ever. This post details a mental model for controls engineers entering the field of industrial automation and gives some appreciation to the value of what we do!

Automation/controls engineers have to stich together super specific solutions using various pseudo-compatible hardware, networking software, IIOT devices, & proprietary solutions. Its hard!

There's a dizzying array of industrial automation tools/terms/brands out there with overlapping capabilities that blend together into a gray mush of confusing vernacular: IPC, PLC, DAQ, SCADA, PAC, DCS… HMI, GUI, Touchscreen, Web Interface… EtherCat, EtherNet, ProfiNet, ProfiBus, modBus… OPC-UA, MQTT, HTTP/REST… LD, ST, SFC, IL, FBD?

My thought process when exposed to a new tool is categorizing it by its capabilities in a mental map to help make sense of things. Basic but important for clear thinking!