Top 5 Control Engineering articles March 13-19: PID learning, control system programming, human-robot collaboration, more

Articles about PID learning, standardized control system programming, human-robot collaboration, IIoT and Big Data value, and the Engineers' Choice winners were Control Engineering’s five most clicked articles from March 13-19. Miss something? You can catch up here.

By Chris Vavra March 20, 2017

The top 5 most read articles online, from Mar. 13-19 for Control Engineering, covered PID learning, standardized control system programming, human-robot collaboration, IIoT and Big Data value, and the Engineers’ Choice winners. Links to each article below.

1. The PID learning process

While there are many excellent loop tuning methods available, many practitioners prefer tweaking proportional-integral-derivative (PID) tuning constants or using rules-of-thumb rather than doing the required step test and data analysis. 

2. Standardizing control system programming with IEC 61131-3

For the first time in the history of industrial controls, industrial control system (ICS) programming—regardless of the controller type—can be implemented with the same standard, and the programs created with that standard easily can be transported from one compliant control system to another. 

3. Robots, humans collaborate on safety

A new age of collaborative robots put people closer to technology than ever before.

4. Strategy and standards help determine Big Data, IIoT value

Cover Story: There are many tools for capturing the potential value Big Data and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) provide, but companies need to know what kind of information they want and how to gather it securely.

5. 2017 Engineers’ Choice Awards: Spotlight on innovation

The 30th annual Control Engineering Engineers’ Choice Awards shines a light on 28 categories of control, instrumentation, and automation products, revealing the best of those introduced in 2016 as chosen by you, Control Engineering’s print and digital audience.

The list was developed using CFE Media’s web analytics for stories viewed on controleng.com, March 13-19, for articles published within the last two months.

Chris Vavra, production editor, CFE Media, cvavra@cfemedia.com.


Author Bio: Chris Vavra is web content manager for CFE Media and Technology.