Industrial automation

The course consists of two parts:
- architecture of automation systems, hands-on control systems lab at Siemens
- handling of faults and failures in real-time systems

Trends like digitalization and internet of things affect the way industrial plants are designed, deployed and operated. Industrial Automation comprises the control, communication and software in real-time systems: factories, energy production and distribution, vehicles and other embedded systems. 

This course gives an overview over the whole chain from sensors, motors, controllers, communication networks, supervision software, operator visualization, archiving and up to manufacturing execution systems and enterprise resource management. It addresses dependability and fault-tolerance against hardware and software faults and their evaluation methods. Previous knowledge in control theory is not required. The course is open to master and phd students of all engineering sections of EPFL.

An important part of this course is to learn how to synthesize the material of the course with knowledge you may have already or acquire on your own. And, equally important, to practice to work together with people of different backgrounds. To this end, this course includes a graded project. For this project, you will form interdisciplinary teams, representing an automation company. Your task will be to prepare a proposal for a customer plant.