- A History of Increasing Complexity
- Mechatronic System Organization
- Amplifiers and Isolation
- Scope: The Unit Machine
- Control
- Real-Time Software
- Nasty Software Properties
- Engineering Design and Computational Performance
- Control System Organization
- Software Portability
- Operator Interface
- Multicomputer Systems: Communication
- The Design and Implementation Process
1.5 Control
The term control is used here in a broad context: that is, it encompasses all of the software, electronics, instruments, and actuators needed to achieve the goals of the target system. Our focus is specifically on the software, but control system software cannot be considered outside the context of the other elements of a control system. Control is often used to refer specifically to feedback control. Feedback control often, if not usually, present in mechatronic control systems, is only one small part of the overall control system. Thus, when used alone, control will refer to the broader context; feedback control will be identified explicitly when referring to the mathematics of feedback control or to implementations of feedback control algorithms within the broader control system.