ELFT2500 Industrial Automation and Instrumentation Course description

Industrial automation plays a central role in modern production systems, enabling efficient, reliable, and repeatable operation of industrial processes. By integrating control systems, sensors, actuators, and communication networks, automation reduces human intervention while increasing safety and productivity. From manufacturing to energy, automated systems are ubiquitous in industry. Advances in digital technologies continue to reshape the field, emphasising flexibility, connectivity, and data-driven optimisation. Understanding these systems is key to designing and maintaining intelligent, responsive industrial environments.

This course provides an introduction to industrial automation, with a focus on programmable logic controllers (PLCs), sensors and actuators, discrete-event system modelling, simulation and analysis, human-machine interfaces (HMIs), and industrial communication. Students engage with the material through lectures, hands-on laboratory sessions, and guest lectures from industry professionals. Emphasis is placed on understanding system behaviour and control logic, as well as practical implementation. Labs allow students to apply theoretical concepts to real-world problems using systems commonly employed in industry. The course prepares students for technical roles, the design of complex automation systems, and further study in automation and control.

Language of instruction: English

Some of the concepts from electrical circuits and dynamic systems will be useful.

No requirements over and above the admission requirements.

After completing the course, the student is expected to have achieved the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills, and general competence:

Knowledge

The student has knowledge of:

• principles of industrial automation;
• automation and IT layers at an industrial plant (Field, Control, Supervision, Planning, and Management);
• physical principles and main features of typical sensors and actuators used in industrial settings;
• principles of data acquisition systems, including sensor modeling, signal conditioning, and calibration techniques;
• architecture and programming of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs);
• modelling, simulation and analysis of automation systems as discrete-event systems using Finite State Automata (FSAs) and Petri Nets;
• fundamentals of Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs) and industrial communications.

Skills

The student is capable of:

• setting up a simple automation plan;
• providing solutions for implementing measurement and actuation systems for automation purposes;
• suggesting a PLC system with required specifications;
• programming basic PLC programs for automation tasks;
• analysing automation systems performance using modelling and simulation tools.

General competence

The student is capable of:

• setting up a general automation plan by selecting the appropriate sensors, actuators and PLCs;

• developing simple PLC programs.

    

Lectures and laboratory assignments are central. The laboratory teaching is built to support the classroom teaching and for hands on practice with a number of products and solutions used in the industry.

A semester project consolidates the knowledge and skills from the entire semester.

The following coursework is compulsory and must be approved before the student can take the final written exam:

• A passing aggregate lab score collected from 5 lab experiments, including the term project (30-40 pages in total, totally approx. 50 hours including execution and documentation).
• 3 hand-in exercises (4-5 pages and 4 hours each).

Individual written exam under supervison, 3 hours

The exam result can be appealed.

In the event of a resit or rescheduled exam, an oral examination may be used instead. In case an oral exam is used, the examination result cannot be appealed.

Håndholdt kalkulator som ikke kommuniserer trådløst og som ikke kan regne symbolsk. Dersom kalkulatoren har mulighet for lagring i internminnet skal minnet være slettet før eksamen. Stikkprøver kan foretas.

Grade scale A-F.

One internal examiner. External examiners are used regularly.