Automation Opportunities at
Corps of Engineers Locks and Dams
KEVIN L. CAREY
operating personnel from continuous observa-
INTRODUCTION
tion, visual feedback, and consequent adjust-
The navigation lock and dam facilities of the
ment of the control of the process being conduct-
Corps of Engineers encompass a wide range of
ed. The purpose of automation is to achieve con-
designs, ages, conditions, traffic levels, and
sistent, safe, and dependable operation of lock
operating characteristics. This examination of
and dam facilities.
adapting or extending automation to such a di-
Automation measures can fall within an ex-
verse population of facilities must necessarily be
tremely wide range in terms of complexity, im-
quite general. It will be the task of future studies
mediate purpose, cost, etc. While this study
to apply the general findings of the present
must remain generalized, there still needs to be
study to the specific facilities found in a particu-
a set of characteristics or criteria by which vari-
lar division or district or on a given waterway.
ous measures can be described or distinguished
While a broad program to adopt automation
within this wide range. These characteristics can
measures could eventually result in the need for
be used, then, to discriminate among various
fewer operating personnel, the most important
levels of complexity, utility, cost, etc., and there-
outcome of such a program would be to better
by form judgments concerning automation im-
utilize the skills of existing operating personnel.
plementation.
Personnel resources are much more valuable
To codify or categorize candidate automation
and productive when applied to overall surveil-
measures, there is need for a scheme of criteria
lance of the safety and efficiency of operations,
or determinative characteristics by which any
rather than to the tweaking of machinery com-
particular measure can be described or evaluat-
ponents involved in the operations.
ed. This study has developed a scheme compris-
Important parts of this study were a survey of
ing five categories to describe an automation
Corps projects to identify automation systems
measure. These categories are 1) type or level of
and needs, and visits to several lock and dam
automation measure, in terms of the complexity
projects to examine automation systems and as-
or sophistication of the measure; 2) the purpose
sess automation applications to project opera-
for which the automation measure may be
tions. The survey of Corps projects is the subject
adopted, expressed in terms that have signifi-
of Appendix A, and Appendix B contains ac-
cance for operational management decisions; 3)
counts of the field visits.
the qualitative difficulty of installing or imple-
menting the automation measure; 4) the relative
(qualitative) cost of the measure; and 5) the de-
AUTOMATION CHARACTERISTICS
gree by which operating with the new automa-
tion measure departs from operations using
For the purposes of this report, automation is
present methods. This latter category may give a
considered to be any measure or equipment em-
rough indication of anticipated personnel accep-
ployed to control a procedure or operation with
tance of an automation measure.
some degree of planned or programmed func-
The scheme of evaluation categories and the
tion. As such, automation is meant to relieve
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