Introduction To Industrial Automation Learning Guide

Learn industrial automation over a coffee with me.

Join me in getting a genuine, practical head start into industrial automation. No expensive hardware, no course fees, no risk. Just a laptop, a free online simulator, and 58 pages that take you from "what even is a PLC?" to wiring and programming your first working machine.

This is a beginner-friendly guide built for apprentices, junior engineers, career changers, and anyone curious about how the machines behind modern manufacturing actually work. Using a real conveyor machine as your example, you'll build the electrical control circuit and PLC program from scratch, entirely in free, browser-based software, so there's no expensive hardware or software licences required.

What's inside:

• How relays and contactors work, and why they're still the backbone of every control panel
• Wiring a basic control circuit from the ground up — start/stop buttons, latching circuits, safety interlocks
• What a PLC actually is and how it thinks (read inputs → process logic → write outputs)
• How to wire a PLC into a real circuit
• Programming in Ladder Logic — the industry-standard language, using a free simulator, no manufacturer software required
• Building real machine logic — considering door safety, indicator lamps, flashing status lights, motor control, and next-machine-ready signals

By the end, you won't just understand the theory, you'll have simulated, wired and programmed a working automated machine yourself.

Written by Mark Lee, Head of Robotics with 20+ years in industrial automation, who has spent his career training apprentices and engineers on the shop floor. Learning Automation exists to make that same grounding accessible to anyone starting out, without the price tag of formal training.

Grab it for just the cost of a Starbucks oat milk latte and join me in getting your automation journey started. Come out the other side actually understanding how automation really works.