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Automatic firearm

An automatic firearm, also called a machine gun, is a firearm that fires continuously while the trigger is held and cartridges remain, unlike a semiautomatic.

Automatic for the People is R.E.M.'s eighth studio album, released October 5, 1992 on Warner Bros. A quiet, mortality-themed record with John Paul Jones string arrangements, it sold 18 million copies and is regarded as the band's finest album.

Automatic frequency control

Automatic frequency control (AFC) is a feedback technique that keeps a receiver, transmitter, or oscillator locked to a desired frequency, correcting drift from temperature, voltage, and component aging.

Automatic Fuel Adjustment

Automatic Fuel Adjustment (AFA) is a monthly electricity tariff adjustment in Peninsular Malaysia that passes fuel cost changes to consumers as a surcharge or rebate, effective 1 July 2025.

Automatic gain control

Automatic gain control (AGC), or automatic volume control, is a feedback circuit or algorithm that adjusts amplifier gain to hold output level stable despite varying input strength.

Automatic generation control

Automatic generation control (AGC), also called load frequency control, is the secondary control layer of a power grid that adjusts generator setpoints to restore frequency and hold tie-line schedules.

Automatic identification system

The automatic identification system (AIS) is a shipborne VHF radio system that broadcasts a vessel's identity, position, course, and speed to ships and shore stations.

Automatic image annotation

Automatic image annotation is a machine learning method that assigns descriptive keywords to digital images without human effort, studied alongside tag refinement and tag-based image retrieval.

Automatic meter reading

Automatic meter reading (AMR), also known as advanced meter reading, is the remote collection of consumption data from water, gas, and electric meters via handheld, drive-by, or fixed-network receivers.

Automatic milking

Automatic milking (AMS, robotic milking, voluntary milking system): robotic technology that milks dairy cows without human operators, first commercialized in the Netherlands in 1992; cows self-schedule milking, with about 50,000 units worldwide by 2020.

Automatic Number Announcement Circuit

An Automatic Number Announcement Circuit (ANAC) is a telephone test number that announces the calling line's number, used by telephone company technicians to identify unknown lines.

Automatic number identification

Automatic number identification (ANI) is a telephone signaling function that delivers the calling party's billing number to carriers, originally a Bell System mechanism for automated long-distance billing.

Automatic number-plate recognition

Automatic number-plate recognition, also called automatic license plate recognition (ALPR), is a surveillance technology that uses cameras and optical character recognition to read vehicle plates, invented in 1976 in the United Kingdom.

Automatic parallelization

Automatic parallelization is a compiler technique that converts sequential programs into parallel form without manual rewriting, analyzing loops for independent iterations and emitting threaded or annotated code.

Automatic Protection Switching

Automatic Protection Switching (APS) is a mechanism in SONET and SDH networks that switches traffic from a failed working path to a pre-provisioned protection path, targeting 50 milliseconds.

Automatic reclosing

Automatic reclosing (autoreclose) is the process by which a circuit breaker that has tripped on a fault closes again automatically, restoring service after temporary faults.

Automatic repeat request

Automatic repeat request (ARQ) is an error-control protocol in which a receiver detects transmission errors and asks the sender to retransmit lost or corrupted packets, using acknowledgments and timeouts.

Automatic rifle

An automatic rifle, or full-auto rifle, is a shoulder-fired rifle capable of automatic fire, first embodied by the Browning Automatic Rifle in the First World War.

Automatic route selection

Automatic route selection, called least cost routing (LCR) in carrier networks, is a telephony feature that sends each outbound call over the cheapest available route without user action.

Automatic sequence

An automatic sequence is an infinite sequence whose nth term is produced by a finite automaton with output from the base-k digits of n, including the Thue–Morse sequence.

Oct 10, 2026

Automatic stabilizer

An automatic stabilizer is a fiscal feature, such as the income tax or unemployment insurance, that widens deficits in downturns and narrows them in booms without new legislation.

Automatic summarization

Automatic summarization is a natural language processing method that condenses documents by selecting key sentences or generating new text, beginning with Luhn's 1958 auto-abstract and now dominated by large language models.

Automatic target recognition

Automatic target recognition (ATR) is a processing task that detects and classifies targets from sensor signatures, originally military and now applied to ship detection and sea-ice monitoring.

Automatic telephone exchange

An automatic telephone exchange connects telephone calls without an operator, using pulses from the subscriber's dial to drive electromechanical switches, first patented by Almon Strowger in 1891.

Automatic terminal information service

Automatic terminal information service (ATIS) is the continuous broadcast of recorded, non-control information at busy airports, giving pilots weather, runway, and approach data without occupying controller radio time.

Automatic test pattern generation

Automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) is the process by which a program computes test vectors for detecting faults in digital circuits, so manufactured devices can be screened.

Automatic train control (Shinkansen)

Automatic train control (ATC) on the Shinkansen is the cab-signaling system that supervises speed and brakes trains automatically, running on all Shinkansen lines since 1964.

Automatic train operation

Automatic train operation (ATO) is the automated control of a train's acceleration, braking, and station stopping, graded into degrees of automation up to fully unattended operation.

Automatic train protection

Automatic train protection (ATP) is a railway safety system that continuously monitors train speed and position and automatically applies the brakes when limits are exceeded.