Automatic Control - Components

Components

A central concept with automatic control is that of the system to be controlled, such as a rudder and its engine, a propeller and its motor or a ballistic missile with its jet or rocket engine and the feedback of control information from the measured speed, direction and heading in a closed loop to enable proper feed forward of propelling energy.

  • Sensor(s), which measure some physical state such as temperature or liquid level.
  • Controller(s), which may be from simple physical components up to complex special purpose digital controllers or embedded computers.
  • Actuator(s), which effect a response to the sensor(s) under the command of the responder, for example, by controlling an energy input, as e.g. a gas flow to a burner in a heating system or electricity to a motor in a refrigerator or pump.

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