A highly technical implementation; usually involving electronic hardware; SYN. mechanization, mechanisation, high technology, high-tech.
Control of machines by other machines, electronic devices, etc., instead of by human beings.
Widespread use of self-regulating machines in industry. Automation involves the addition of control devices, using electronic sensing and computing techniques, which often follow the pattern of human nervous and brain functions, to already mechanized physical processes of production and distribution; for example, steel processing, mining, chemical production, and road, rail, and air control.

1. The implementation of a mechanical or electronic system or tool to automatically complete a task, thereby reducing or eliminating human intervention. 2. Formerly known as OLE Automation, a Microsoft-designed technology that enables an application to expose objects and their properties for use by other applications. This allows a word processor to display and manipulate a spreadsheet program, for instance. The application that exposes an object for use is called the server; the application that manipulates the object is called the client. Automation can be either local or remote (on a computer elsewhere on a network). It is intended primarily for use by high-level languages such as Microsoft Visual Basic and Microsoft Visual C++. See also ActiveX control, OLE.