Process Monitoring, Control, and Automation

The fourth industrial revolution is steering manufacturing towards full automation. Producers seek robust vacuum process monitoring, control, and automation solutions. They hold the key to the success of any attempt to achieve the necessary level of industrial automation. The bonuses of successful automation include higher production rates, lower waste of materials and energy, lower operating costs, and increased overall efficiency. Reliable monitoring and control solutions are far from readily available and intense development efforts are underway in industry and academia across the globe. It is intensely hot around the topics related to the development and industrial application of:

• embedded sensors and actuators,
• cyber-physical monitoring and control systems,
• holistic process control methods and systems,
• robotic automation, and
• machine learning.

This session/TAC brings together experts, technologists, and solution providers from the thin film/surface engineering community to discuss challenges, developments, and solutions that pave the way toward enabling the autonomous operation of vacuum coating plants. Contributions highlighting particular challenges or constraints and talks detailing cutting-edge monitoring, control, and automation methods and their physical and digital embodiments are particularly well suited to this session. Process Monitoring, Control, and Automation TAC Chair: Martynas Audronis, Nova Fabrica Ltd., martynas@novafabrica.biz; Assistant Session Chairs: Joseph Brindley, Gencoa Ltd, joseph.brindley@gencoa.com; Gun-Hwan Lee, Korea Institute of Materials Science, ghlee@kims.re.kr; Edmund Schüngel, VAT Vakuumventile AG, e.schuengel@vat.ch