Instrumentation is the ability to use instruments to measure, control, and manipulate processes and procedures involving machinery. Instruments are involved in creating, constructing, and maintaining the devices and systems that are used in the measurement and control process. And these processes are vital to manufacturing plants and their ability to function in the present economy of today. Every machine that is used has to be tested to ensure full reliability. Also all components and parts that are place on these machines have to confirm to standards to be used. Many steps that occur along the way require measuring things such as temperature, pressure, flow, liquid level, velocity of the machine as it moves, density of the surface of the part as it is being prepared, and other factors.
Every factor in industrial automation has to be considered to make working the machines worthwhile. Irregardless if humans interact with machines or not is really not the whole determining factor in industrial automation. What it is would be the ability of each machine to function in a capacity without any intervention of any type. Instruments come in handy to make tests to determine if these functions are valid.