Forklift Control Valve - The earliest automatic control systems were being utilized more that two thousand years ago. In Alexandria Egypt, the ancient Ktesibios water clock built in the 3rd century is believed to be the very first feedback control equipment on record. This clock kept time by means of regulating the water level inside a vessel and the water flow from the vessel. A popular style, this successful machine was being made in a similar fashion in Baghdad when the Mongols captured the city in 1258 A.D.
Through history, a variety of automatic devices have been used to be able to accomplish specific tasks or to simply entertain. A popular European design through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was the automata. This particular device was an example of "open-loop" control, featuring dancing figures that would repeat the same task repeatedly.
Closed loop or feedback controlled machines comprise the temperature regulator common on furnaces. This was actually developed during the year 1620 and attributed to Drebbel. One more example is the centrifugal fly ball governor developed in 1788 by James Watt and used 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 could clarify the instabilities exhibited by the fly ball governor. He utilized differential equations so as to describe the control system. This paper demonstrated the importance and helpfulness of mathematical methods and models in relation to comprehending 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 control theories and new developments in mathematical techniques made it possible to more precisely control more dynamic systems compared to the first model fly ball governor. These updated methods consist of various developments in optimal control during the 1950s and 1960s, followed by progress in stochastic, robust, adaptive and optimal control techniques in the 1970s and the 1980s.
New technology and applications of control methodology have helped produce cleaner auto engines, more efficient and cleaner chemical processes and have helped make space travel and communication satellites possible.
In the beginning, control engineering was performed as a part of mechanical engineering. Moreover, control theory was initially studied as part of electrical engineering in view of the fact that electrical circuits could often be simply explained with control theory techniques. Currently, control engineering has emerged as a unique practice.
The 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 time, the designers were left with less efficient systems and the choice of slow responding mechanical systems. The governor is a really effective mechanical controller which is still often utilized by some hydro plants. Ultimately, process control systems became offered previous to modern power electronics. These process controls systems were usually utilized in industrial applications and were devised by mechanical engineers using pneumatic and hydraulic control devices, many of which are still being utilized nowadays.
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