B5 CONTROL AND MONITORING

Other terms related to the use of computers in control processes and devices will be found in Section C1 Programming concepts and Section E7 Communications technology.

The use of computers to make machines do what we want them to – called control – grew out of the extensive use of mechanical devices and electromagnetic switches (relays). In telephone exchanges, traffic lights and lifts control used to be achieved by the use of mechanically operated switching systems. Other methods were designed to control the operation of machines, made up of devices that reacted to conditions in the environment such as temperature, pressure, speed, position. Large manufacturing plants were built controlled by these methods.

The development ...

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