Browse Definitions :
Definition

control loop

A control loop is a system made up of all the hardware components and software control functions needed for the measurement and adjustment of a variable that controls an individual process.

Control loops are the elemental building block of industrial control systems (ICS) such as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) or distributed control systems (DCS). Each control loop commands a given variable in an industrial process.

Found everywhere ICS are used, control loops are part of the systems used in several processes, including:

  • Agriculture
  • Chemical plants
  • Pulp and Paper Mills
  • Quality control
  • Boiler controls and power plant
  • Nuclear power plants
  • Environmental control
  • Water treatment plants
  • Sewage treatment plants
  • Food and food processing
  • Metal and mines
  • Pharmaceutical manufacturing
  • Sugar refining plants

A control loop is made of a number of components. Though the specifics vary, a control loop is generally made of a sensor, a controller and a final control element.  The sensor takes a reading of the process variable or a related measurement. The controller receives the signal from the sensor and then forwards it to instrumentation, to remote terminal units (RTU) and to final control elements where the process variable is adjusted, to be kept as desired at a set point.

There are two main types of control loops: open loops that take human input and closed loops that are fully autonomous. Some loops can be switched between closed and open. When open, a switchable loop is manually controllable and when closed it is fully automated.

This was last updated in September 2017

Continue Reading About control loop

Networking
  • remote infrastructure management

    Remote infrastructure management, or RIM, is a comprehensive approach to handling and overseeing an organization's IT ...

  • port address translation (PAT)

    Port address translation (PAT) is a type of network address translation (NAT) that maps a network's private internal IPv4 ...

  • network fabric

    'Network fabric' is a general term used to describe underlying data network infrastructure as a whole.

Security
CIO
  • digital innovation

    Digital innovation is the adoption of modern digital technologies by a business.

  • business goals

    A business goal is an endpoint, accomplishment or target an organization wants to achieve in the short term or long term.

  • vertical SaaS (software as a service)

    Vertical SaaS describes a type of software as a service solution created for a specific industry, such as retail, financial ...

HRSoftware
  • employee onboarding and offboarding

    Employee onboarding involves all the steps needed to get a new employee successfully deployed and productive, while offboarding ...

  • skill-based learning

    Skill-based learning develops students through hands-on practice and real-world application.

  • gamification

    Gamification is a strategy that integrates entertaining and immersive gaming elements into nongame contexts to enhance engagement...

Customer Experience
  • Microsoft Dynamics 365

    Dynamics 365 is a cloud-based portfolio of business applications from Microsoft that are designed to help organizations improve ...

  • Salesforce Commerce Cloud

    Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a cloud-based suite of products that enable e-commerce businesses to set up e-commerce sites, drive ...

  • Salesforce DX

    Salesforce DX, or SFDX, is a set of software development tools that lets developers build, test and ship many kinds of ...

Close