Industrial automation has been a goal for production ever since the first steps of the industrial revolution. It has served as a replacement for manual labour in industrial settings, e$.$g$.$ assembly lines.

Fixed automation, which most people associate with the term, is the performing of repetitive sequences of mechanical moves by robotic arms, like assembling a product, and it is in wide usage today all over the world.

But the sequences performed by the equipment can also be controlled by a computer, in another automation paradigm called programmable automation, so that the equipment performs different functions. In this case the equipment can be easily reprogrammed to perform different sequences, allowing more flexibility.

Soft automation takes this idea even further, by controlling all processes and material handling via a central computer. It's advantage compared to programmable automation is that there is no time lost in mechanically reconfiguring the equipment to perform different functions.

Which of the following is true?

Soft automation can't control mechanical adjustments of the equipment

Programmable automation is slower than fixed automation

Fixed automation does not use computers to control processes

Soft automation is the slowest among other automation methods

Fixed automation uses a central computer to control all processes