The development of automation can be divided into the following stages:
Stage 1: it covers the time from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century. At this stage, the development of automation were attempts to create automatic machines and lines with kinematic communication. The development of production automation was based on the principles and methods of classical mechanics.
Stage 2: it covers the period from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. This stage is associated with the development of electrical engineering and the practical use of electricity in automation. By the beginning of the twentieth century is the widespread development and use of electrical automatic control systems. The forties and fifties of the twentieth century marked the beginning of the rapid development of radio electronics. Electronic devices provide higher speed, sensitivity, accuracy and reliability of automatic systems.
Stage 3: the Transition to the third stage of automation development was the new capabilities of numerical control based on the use of microprocessor technology.