Forklift Control Valve - Automatic control systems were first developed over two thousand years ago. The ancient water clock of Ktesibios in Alexandria Egypt dating to the third century B.C. is believed to be the very first feedback control machine on record. This clock kept time by means of regulating the water level in a vessel and the water flow from the vessel. A popular style, this successful equipment was being made in the same fashion in Baghdad when the Mongols captured the city in 1258 A.D.
Different automatic machines throughout history, have been utilized in order to complete specific jobs. A popular style utilized through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe, was the automata. This machine was an example of "open-loop" control, featuring dancing figures which would repeat the same job again and again.
Closed loop or otherwise called feedback controlled devices comprise the temperature regulator common on furnaces. This was actually developed in 1620 and attributed to Drebbel. One more example is the centrifugal fly ball governor developed in the year 1788 by James Watt and utilized for regulating the speed of steam engines.
J.C. Maxwell, who discovered the Maxwell electromagnetic field equations, wrote a paper in 1868 "On Governors," which can describe the instabilities demonstrated by the fly ball governor. He utilized differential equations so as to explain the control system. This paper exhibited the importance and helpfulness of mathematical methods and models in relation to understanding complicated phenomena. It likewise signaled the start of systems theory and mathematical control. Previous elements of control theory had appeared earlier by not as dramatically and as convincingly as in Maxwell's analysis.
New developments in mathematical techniques and new control theories made it possible to more accurately control more dynamic systems as opposed to the original model fly ball governor. These updated techniques include various developments in optimal control in the 1950s and 1960s, followed by progress in robust, stochastic, optimal and adaptive control techniques in the 1970s and the 1980s.
New applications and technology of control methodology has helped produce cleaner engines, with cleaner and more efficient processes helped make communication satellites and even traveling in space possible.
At first, control engineering was practiced as a part of mechanical engineering. As well, control theory was initially studied as part of electrical engineering as electrical circuits could often be simply explained with control theory techniques. Nowadays, control engineering has emerged as a unique practice.
The very first controls had current outputs represented with a voltage control input. To be able to implement electrical control systems, the correct technology was unavailable at that moment, the designers were left with less efficient systems and the option of slow responding mechanical systems. The governor is a very effective mechanical controller that is still normally utilized by various hydro factories. Ultimately, process control systems became accessible prior to modern power electronics. These process controls systems were often utilized in industrial applications and were devised by mechanical engineers making use of pneumatic and hydraulic control machines, many of which are still being utilized today.
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