The design of awning (Markisen) structures has been through a number of advances in recent decades, due in part to the development of automated technologies and design considerations. Automation is defined as the use of dedicated control systems to control individual machinery or processes, which in term reduces the need for human intervention. There are a number of winter garden awning (Wintergartenbeschattung) designs, side awning designs, and other related awning designs that use processes of automation to control retractable awning arms and coverings. Awnings are fantastic at allowing users to maintain control over the level of sun and protection in a particular living area, and automated processes give people even more power over the way that they can control their living conditions.

Automation has had a big role to play in global society, primarily though the use of automated machinery in industry and the automated processes used in computers and information technology. While there are some people who think that wide spread automation will make people lazy and reduce the opportunity for employment, the vast majority of people see automation as a direct and positive result of human evolution. Awnings have been around for a long time, with the first awnings being used as market stalls in ancient Egyptian civilizations. Many of the new developments in awning design and manufacture are down to the integration of automated technologies, including the retractable arms that are featured on many new awning designs. Retractable awnings can manipulate the level of shade reaching a particular living environment, by controlling the arms through either manual or automated remote controls.

Retractable awnings that utilise electronic technology to control the arms are the primary example of automated awnings, and the choice of many home owners around the world. The ability to control the raising and lowering of awning arms is a feature that many home owners already have on their garages and garden shed doors, and having this technology on awnings is seen by many as a natural progression. Automation plays a big part in the mechanisms of human evolution and industrialisation, and its use is only likely to increase and become more tightly integrated into new devices and technologies. Retractable awning structures are one of the biggest advances in awning design over the last few decades, and new designs are more and more likely to feature electronic automated control systems.