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Modern day control engineering is a relatively new field of study that gained significant attention during the 20th century with the advancement of technology. It can be broadly defined or classified as practical application of [[control theory]]. Control engineering plays an essential role in a wide range of control systems, from simple household washing machines to high-performance [[fighter aircraft]]. It seeks to understand physical systems, using mathematical modelling, in terms of inputs, outputs and various components with different behaviors; to use control system design tools to develop [[Controller (control theory)|controller]]s for those systems; and to implement controllers in physical systems employing available technology. A [[control system|system]] can be [[mechanical engineering|mechanical]], [[electrical engineering|electrical]], [[fluid]], [[chemical]], [[financial control|financial]] or [[biology|biological]], and its mathematical modelling, analysis and controller design uses [[control theory]] in one or many of the [[Time ___domain|time]], [[frequency ___domain|frequency]] and [[S ___domain|complex-s]] domains, depending on the nature of the design problem.
Control engineering is the engineering [[discipline]] that focuses on the [[mathematical model|modeling]] of a diverse range of [[dynamic systems]] (e.g. [[mechanics|mechanical]] [[system]]s) and the design of [[controller (control theory)|controller]]s that will cause these systems to behave in the desired manner.<ref name="Keviczky_2019">{{Cite book |last=Keviczky |first=László |title=Control engineering |last2=Bars |first2=Ruth |last3=Hetthéssy |first3=Jenő |last4=Bányász |first4=Csilla |date=2019 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-981-13-4114-4 |series=Advanced textbooks in control and signal processing |___location=Singapore}}</ref>{{rp|6}} Although such controllers need not be electrical, many are and hence control engineering is often viewed as a subfield of electrical engineering.
[[Electrical circuit]]s, [[digital signal processor]]s and [[microcontroller]]s can all be used to implement [[control system]]s. Control engineering has a wide range of applications from the flight and propulsion systems of [[Airliner|commercial airliners]] to the [[cruise control]] present in many modern [[automobile]]s.
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[[File:Colonne distillazione.jpg|thumb| Control of [[fractionating column]]s is one of the more challenging applications.]]
Automatic control systems were first developed over two thousand years ago. The first feedback control device on record is thought to be the ancient [[Ktesibios]]'s [[water clock]] in [[Alexandria]], Egypt, around the third century BCE. It kept time by regulating the water level in a vessel and, therefore, the water flow from that vessel.
{{r|Keviczky_2019|p=22}} This certainly was a successful device as water clocks of similar design were still being made in Baghdad when the Mongols [[Siege of Baghdad (1258)|captured]] the city in 1258 CE. A variety of automatic devices have been used over the centuries to accomplish useful tasks or simply just to entertain. The latter includes the automata, popular in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, featuring dancing figures that would repeat the same task over and over again; these automata are examples of open-loop control. Milestones among feedback, or "closed-loop" automatic control devices, include the temperature regulator of a furnace attributed to [[Cornelis Drebbel|Drebbel]], circa 1620, and the centrifugal flyball governor used for regulating the speed of steam engines by James Watt{{r|Keviczky_2019|p=22}} in 1788. In his 1868 paper "On Governors", [[James Clerk Maxwell]] was able to explain instabilities exhibited by the flyball governor using differential equations to describe the control system. This demonstrated the importance and usefulness of mathematical models and methods in understanding complex phenomena, and it signaled the beginning of mathematical control and systems theory. Elements of control theory had appeared earlier but not as dramatically and convincingly as in Maxwell's analysis.
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