Copyright © 2002 IFAC 15th Triennial World Congress, Barcelona, Spain CONTROL AND THE DIGITAL COMPUTER: THE EARLY YEARS Stuart Bennett Department of Automatic Control & Systems Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 3JD, UK, Email:
[email protected] Abstract: During the years 1950-1970 there was extensive development of control theory and its application. This paper explores the influence of the rapid development of the digital computer and associated enabling technologies on the field of control systems. A brief outline of digital computer and control theory development is given followed by an account of the effect of the digital computer on process control applications. Copyright © 2002 IFAC Keywords: history, digital computer, process control, control theory 1. INTRODUCTION New York Times in the USA devoted considerable column inches to the debate. Governments, in both Text books published around 1950 expounded the the USA and the UK, instituted enquiries into the frequency domain techniques which had been used subject and professional engineering institutions during the war for the design (by trial and error) of began to recognise automatic control as a specific linear single variable systems. However, as many of sub-discipline worthy of the formation of sections contributors to the conferences of 1951 (at Cranfield, (Bennett, 1993). A report produced, in 1956, for the UK) and 1953 (New York, USA) explained, typical UK government saw a combination of real-world problems were non-linear, complex, mechanisation, automatic control and the newly multivariable, many involving discrete as well as emerging digital computer as providing the means to continuous data; they also expressed the need for overcome labour shortages and keep the economy optimum not just adequate controller performance.