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Control System Design - Index | Book Contents |
Chapter 1
| Section 1.5
1. The Excitement of Control Engineering
1.5.4 Actuators
Once sensors are in place to report on the state of a
process, then the next issue is the ability to affect or actuate
the system, in order to move the process from the current state to
a desired state. Thus, we see that actuation is another intrinsic
element in control problems. The availability of new or improved
actuators also often opens the door to significant improvements in
performance. Conversely, inadequate or poor actuators often lie at
the heart of control difficulties. A typical industrial control
problem will usually involve many different actuators--see, for
example, the flatness control set-up shown in Figure 1.3.
Figure 1.3:
Typical flatness control set-up for rolling mill
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