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Automation in Transport
Page 118
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By S. BUCKLEY, Assoc lost T
APPLICATIONS, techniques and human aspects of automation when applied to transport were discussed at the Institute of Transport Conference held at New College, Oxford, last week-end. in addition to the direct application of automation to transport, the changes resulting from the use of automation in manufacturing industries must affect transport—both passenger and goods—because it is a service industry. Particular types of industrial activity can no longer he self-contained. To keep abreast of developments industries must look outward at what others were doing. Cross fertilization of techniques is an increasingly important factor in modern development and the enormous scientific effort invested in space flight is already having an effect in industry. But it is imperative to the successful application of automation that the associated technical and economic problems should not preclude adequate consideration of the human aspects.
Opening the Conference on Friday evening the retiring president of the Institute, Mr. Frank Lemass, claimed that road traffic was not only the major problem but the most backward feature of modern times. Road congestion, parking problems and accident rate confirmed this. To alleviate the problem, traffic flow would have to be controlled and volume of traffic restricted by time and place. In achieving this, automation would clearly he needed and in view of the accident rate this could result in taking control away from the driver, which was technically possible.
Because transport was such a labour intensive industry every opportunity must be taken to reduce the resulting cost and automation provided such an opportunity. Also. Mr. Lernass concluded, it could assist operators by obtaining information faster and more comprehensively.
The only justification in seeking to apply automation in transport was whether it would provide a system which gave an equivalent if not better service than by conventional means but at lower cost. That was the criterion Mr. D. McKenna, general manager. British Railways (Southern Region) insisted upon at the outset when giving the opening address on Saturday entitled " The applications for automation in transport ".
Elaborating on this requirement, Mr. McKenna said he judged the quality of service by such factors as speed. frequency, comfort, reliability and safety. It was necessary to measure up what automation could offer in these fields and at what cost. The fully automated system must not be an end in itself; it must always be judged against the coit of at h ievi ng it.
Rail provided the simplest case for the application of automation to transport because it offered only one degree of freedom. It was a guided linear gystem. Practical difficulties arose when applying it to _a system of interrelated services. The key to further automation. Mr. McKenna continued, rested in the control or signalling system rather than in the function of the driver.
Greater reliability could always be obtained— hut at a price. One could c.46 duplicate everything regardless of expense. In any case automation should produce a safer system . than one dependent on human action_ and subject to human error.
But failure of equipment would still occur. When it did it was vital it should cause the least possible disturbance. It was simply not acceptable that the whole system should siop. There must be power of "extraction " from any system involving failure. The ability to cope almost instantaneously with the unpredictable emergency was something which characterized the human being. It also imposed. Mr. McKenna forecast, the most severe challenge to the completely automatic system.
Recording Information Recording of information relative to transport operation lent itself readily to automation technically. But the information would beof little practical use unless it could . be .gathered simultaneously at a large number or places. This would involve heavy expenditure and one must ask if one . had all this information what would one do with it and would it be worth that expenditure.
Automatic barrier control of passengers had been developed by London Transport and the system promised worth-while economies. 11 could he worth simplifying a traditional fares structure to cheapen the process of automatic barriers control. Such variations should be contemplated both in requirements and in their technical solutions in order to achieve optimum economic result.
With both road and sea. movement had two'clegreei of freedom. In the case of road, Mr. McKenna continued, this extra freedom was of positive advantage compared with rail because of greater flexibility.
Although there was no desire to introduce rigidity into road transport movement, there were circumstances such as heavy traffic and conflicting movements where some kind of control became not only acceptable but essential.
Because of the lack of rigid patterns in road transport: it was most 'important that the control system itself should be properly flexible to give the best results. Hence the development of vehicleoperated traffic-control systems because fixed time methods had proved too crude. There might well be occasions when it was desirable with heavy flows to extend automation actually to guiding vehicles and thus deliberately depriving them of one of their degrees of freedom.' Automation could provide a factual background in the form of metering equipment to a system of charging for road space, particularly in congested cities.
The use of a computer for data processing was no substitute for disciplined thought on the part of management. One must first determine what data one needed for efficient management. The application of computers to time-tabling had not been "all that successful ", but good results had been obtained in relating regular and random freight train movements.
Means to an End Automation must he a means to a icommercial end and not an end in itself. Thetechnical achievements of controlled movement in space suggested that the technique itself was never likely to be an inhibiting factor in any of the more limited transport. problems. But the expense of developing • the required technique may well be the inhibitor and
the expense of its application, We should distinguish clearly between these two", Mr. McKenna emphasized. It was of the utmost importance that operator and automation technician should be continuous collaborators in determining what was practicable both physically and economically.
In answer to subsequent questions. Mr. McKenna replied that to pose the query as to whether one could afford not to have automation was an easy way of avoiding the issue. Cost was not at enmity with automation hut it must he considered and evaluated. It was vitally important that there should not be two opposing camps—the ignorant user and the very clever applier of automation. There must be training on all fronts with great attention paid to public relations when automation was being applied.
The techniques of automation available were explained by Mr. W. F. S. Woodford. secretary, the Institution of Production Engineers. At the outset it was necessary to define just what was implied by the word automation. In its simplest form it meant the linking together of a number of manufacturing processes previously carried out separately so that operations could be performed in continuous series automatically controlled from one central point or programme.
Continued on page 121