Physical Implementations
Since modern small microprocessors are so cheap (often less than $1 US), it's very common to implement control systems, including feedback loops, with computers, often in an embedded system. The feedback controls are simulated by having the computer make periodic measurements and then calculate from this stream of measurements (see digital signal processing, sampled data systems).
Computers emulate logic devices by making measurements of switch inputs, calculating a logic function from these measurements and then sending the results out to electronically-controlled switches.
Logic systems and feedback controllers are usually implemented with programmable logic controllers which are devices available from electrical supply houses. They include a little computer and a simplified system for programming. Most often they are programmed with personal computers.
Logic controllers have also been constructed from relays, hydraulic and pneumatic devices, and electronics using both transistors and vacuum tubes (feedback controllers can also be constructed in this manner).
Read more about this topic: Control System
Famous quotes containing the word physical:
“Unfortunately, moral beauty in art—like physical beauty in a person—is extremely perishable. It is nowhere so durable as artistic or intellectual beauty. Moral beauty has a tendency to decay very rapidly into sententiousness or untimeliness.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)