Controlling hydraulic motion with precision involves understanding the fundamental difference between servo motors and hydraulic actuators. Electric motors generally respond linearly to control inputs ...

A unified approach to advanced control can make utilizing the full power of PID less of an art and more of a documented, fast and straightforward procedure. This column, first in a series of “User ...

Self-regulating systems with feedback loops, i.e., the routing back of the output of a system to its input, have existed since antiquity and have since become an integral part of modern technology.

In the nearly 40 years since electronic control systems first became common features of industrial machines, controls theory has necessarily evolved to keep pace with machine design. Early on, systems ...

Machines and processes are controlled using many strategies, from simple ladder logic to custom algorithms for specialized process control, but proportional-integral-derivative (PID) is the most ...

Imagine trying to balance a heavy metal ball bearing on a cafeteria tray. It’s not the easiest thing in the world! In fact, it’s perhaps a task better automated, as [skulkami3000] demonstrates with ...

Any good athlete will tell you that the key to an exceptional performance is to imagine the task ahead and then to practice until the body can bring this imagined sequence into reality. Similarly, ...