A Brief History of Automatic Control（一个自动控制的简要历史）.pdfVIP

A Brief History of Automatic Control Stuart Bennett Automatic feedback control systems have been known and hence the rate of combustion and heat output. Improved tempera­ used for more than 2000 years; some of the earliest examples ture control systems were devised by Bonnemain (circa 1743- are water clocks described by Vitruvius and attributed to Ktesi­ 1828), who based his sensor and actuator on the differential bios (circa 270 B.C.). Some three hundred years later, Heron of expansion of different metals. During the 19th century an exten­ Alexandria described a range of automata which employed a sive range of thermostatic devices were invented, manufactured, variety of feedback mechanisms. The word feedback is a 20th and sold. These devices were, predominantly, direct-acting con­ century neologism introduced in the 1920s by radio engineers to trollers; that is, the power required to operate the control actuator describe parasitic, positive feeding back of the signal from the was drawn from the measuring system. output of an amplifier to the input circuit. It has entered into The most significant control development during the 18th common usage in the English-speaking world during the latter century was the steam engine governor. The origins of this device half of the century. lie in the lift-tenter mechanism which was used to control the gap Automatic feedback is found in a wide range of systems; between the grinding-stones in both wind and water mills. Ma