Every day, thousands of industrial facilities manufacture aerospace components, process chemicals, treat wastewater, and produce high-performance materials that underpin modern society. Behind these operations lies a challenge that rarely receives public attention: ensuring that hundreds of interconnected machines, motors, sensors, and safety systems operate in perfect synchronization without compromising efficiency, reliability, or human safety.
For decades, many industrial facilities have relied on automation architectures built around isolated control systems. Motors, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), supervisory systems, and process equipment often function as independent “automation islands,” making troubleshooting difficult, limiting operational visibility, and reducing opportunities for predictive maintenance and optimization. As manufacturing becomes increasingly digital and interconnected, these legacy architectures are being pushed to their limits.
Addressing this challenge requires engineers capable of integrating electrical engineering, motion control, process automation, functional safety, and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies into unified operational ecosystems.
One engineer working at the intersection of these disciplines is Aniket Kelkar, an Electrical and Controls Engineer whose work focuses on designing and commissioning complex industrial automation systems for aerospace, chemical processing, wastewater treatment, circuit board manufacturing, and advanced surface-finishing facilities.
Rather than viewing automation as a collection of individual controllers, Kelkar approaches industrial systems as integrated digital ecosystems where motors, process equipment, instrumentation, safety systems, PLCs, SCADA platforms, and intelligent drives continuously exchange operational information. His work combines advanced motion control, process optimization, real-time monitoring, and Unified Namespace (UNS) principles to improve reliability, safety, operational efficiency, and system-wide visibility across industrial facilities.
Through projects involving chemical conversion coating lines, electroplating systems, wastewater treatment plants, wet acid scrubbers, HVAC systems, and automated material handling equipment, Kelkar has contributed to control architectures that seek not only to automate industrial processes but also to make them more transparent, data-driven, and resilient.
In the following conversation, he discusses the evolving landscape of industrial automation and the engineering philosophy behind his work.
Q&A with Aniket Kelkar
Q: Industrial automation has existed for decades. What problems still need to be solved?
Aniket Kelkar: Traditional industrial automation has been extremely successful, but many facilities still operate with fragmented control architectures. Motors, PLCs, drives, process instrumentation, and supervisory systems often function independently, making it difficult to understand the complete health of an industrial process.
When a fault occurs, engineers frequently need to investigate multiple systems separately before identifying the root cause. That increases downtime and makes predictive maintenance more difficult.
I believe the future lies in connected industrial systems where operational data is available in real time across engineering, maintenance, and operations teams, enabling faster diagnostics and better decision-making.
Q: Your work frequently references Unified Namespace (UNS). Why is that significant?
Kelkar: Unified Namespace provides a structured approach for organizing industrial information into a common real-time data model instead of maintaining isolated data silos.
In practical terms, it means that motion control data, process variables, alarms, equipment status, and production information become available within a single contextual framework.
This allows different engineering disciplines to view the same operational picture, improving collaboration, diagnostics, scalability, and long-term maintainability.
Rather than simply collecting more data, the objective is to organize industrial information so it becomes genuinely useful for operations.
Q: Motion control appears to be one of your major technical interests. How has that shaped your engineering work?
Kelkar: Motion control is fundamental to modern industrial systems.
Across projects, I have worked with induction motors, Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs), servo motors, stepper motors, variable frequency drives, and closed-loop feedback systems.
The challenge is rarely controlling a single motor. The real challenge is coordinating multiple motion systems with process variables while maintaining precision, repeatability, and operational safety.
Whether it’s a hoist, conveyor, chemical dosing pump, automated transfer system, or HVAC equipment, each motion system must respond dynamically to changing operating conditions.
Integrating these systems with real-time monitoring enables engineers to detect abnormal loading, mechanical wear, or process instability before failures occur.
Q: Many of your projects involve aerospace and chemical processing. Why are these industries particularly demanding?
Kelkar: These industries operate under extremely strict quality, environmental, and safety requirements.
For example, electroplating lines, aerospace coating systems, wastewater treatment plants, and chemical conversion coating facilities require accurate control of temperature, conductivity, flow, chemical concentration, and timing.
Small deviations can affect product quality, environmental compliance, or operational safety.
That’s why control system reliability becomes just as important as process performance.
Q: Beyond automation, you also work extensively on functional safety. How does safety influence engineering decisions?
Kelkar: Functional safety should be considered during system design rather than after engineering is complete.
I have participated in Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), implemented independent protection layers, designed safety interlocks, and integrated fault-handling strategies into control architectures.
The objective isn’t only regulatory compliance—it is designing systems that continue operating safely even when abnormal conditions occur.
Safety engineering and operational reliability are closely connected.
Q: Your responsibilities extend beyond design into field commissioning. Why is that experience valuable?
Kelkar: Commissioning is where engineering assumptions are validated.
You discover how electrical systems, mechanical equipment, instrumentation, software, and process behaviour interact under actual operating conditions.
Working directly during startup provides insights that cannot always be gained during design.
That experience improves future engineering decisions because you better understand how systems behave in real industrial environments.
Q: You have supported projects for aerospace manufacturers and other industrial clients. What have these experiences taught you?
Kelkar: Every project is unique, but they all reinforce the importance of multidisciplinary engineering.
Successful delivery requires electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, process engineers, contractors, operators, equipment manufacturers, and customers to work together effectively.
Technology alone isn’t enough.
Clear communication, structured troubleshooting, and disciplined engineering practices are equally important for delivering reliable systems.
Q: How has IIoT changed industrial automation?
Kelkar: IIoT has shifted industrial automation from reactive operation toward data-driven decision making.
Instead of simply controlling equipment, engineers can continuously evaluate equipment health, operational efficiency, maintenance requirements, and production performance.
This creates opportunities for predictive diagnostics, reduced downtime, and continuous operational improvement.
However, IIoT only delivers value when data is properly structured and contextualized. Otherwise, organizations simply accumulate more information without improving decision-making.
Q: Your work also touches environmental systems such as wastewater treatment and wet acid scrubbers. Why is that important?
Kelkar: Industrial automation has an important role in environmental sustainability.
Automation can improve chemical dosing accuracy, optimize energy consumption, reduce emissions, improve wastewater treatment performance, and support regulatory compliance.
Engineering isn’t only about increasing productivity.
It’s also about designing systems that operate responsibly while minimizing environmental impact.
Q: Looking ahead, where do you see industrial automation evolving over the next decade?
Kelkar: I think we’ll see tighter integration between motion control, process automation, industrial networking, and intelligent analytics.
Control systems will become increasingly data-centric, allowing engineers to understand industrial processes as complete operational ecosystems rather than isolated machines.
The focus will move toward real-time observability, predictive maintenance, standardized data architectures, and smarter commissioning methodologies that improve reliability throughout the entire lifecycle of industrial systems.
Industrial automation is often invisible to the public, yet it underpins industries that manufacture aircraft, protect the environment, process chemicals, and sustain critical infrastructure. Engineers working behind the scenes play a vital role in ensuring these complex systems operate safely and efficiently. Through his work integrating motion control, process engineering, functional safety, and Industrial IoT technologies, Aniket Kelkar represents a generation of engineers helping modernize industrial automation from isolated control systems into connected, data-driven operational environments. As manufacturing continues its transition toward smarter and more integrated facilities, contributions like these illustrate how practical engineering innovation can improve not only industrial productivity, but also safety, sustainability, and long-term operational resilience.Â
