Chapter 1. Introduction

1.14 Summary

This chapter has given glimpses of how control and feedback have influenced the development of technology and how control is used. The examples show that control has emerged concurrently with new technology, that it has had a major influence on technology and that it sometimes has been an enabler. A large number of control systems ranging from small micro devices to large global systems for generation and distribution of electricity and large communication systems have also been given. The wide range of uses of control also point to some difficulties. The ideas of control and feedback are abstract which makes them less obvious. It is therefore common that the ideas are neglected in favor of hardware which is much easier to talk about.

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