Top 5 Control Engineering articles, March 30 to April 5: Feed forwards augmenting PID control, hacking oil and gas control systems, wireless technology benefits, more

Articles about feed forwards augmenting PID control, hacking oil and gas control systems, wireless technology benefits, Microsoft Windows 10 benefits for manufacturers, and dc drives in an ac age were Control Engineering’s five most clicked articles from last week, March 30 to April 5. Miss something? You can catch up here.

By Chris Vavra April 6, 2015

Control Engineering Top 5 most read articles online, for Mar. 30-Apr. 5, covered feed forwards augmenting PID control, hacking oil and gas control systems, wireless technology benefits, Microsoft Windows 10 benefits for manufacturers, and dc drives in an ac age. Link to each article below.

1. Feed forwards augment PID control

Feed forward augmentation is a prediction technique that estimates the output from a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control algorithm without waiting for the PID algorithm to respond. 

2. Hacking oil and gas control systems: Understanding the cyber risk

Cyber attacks are growing in number and intensity over the past decade. Companies in the oil and gas industry are high-profile targets and must take measures to protect themselves from hackers. 

3. Uncapping the benefits of wireless technology

Oil and gas producers are discovering creative ways of lowering costs, boosting productivity via industrial wireless networks. 

4. Microsoft Windows 10 features may help manufacturers more than recent releases

Engineering and IT Insight: Nothing lasts forever. Microsoft Windows 10 is coming with features that may suit manufacturing, software developers, system integrators, and end users more than recent releases. 

5. Still relevant: dc drives important in an ac age

For brute force speed control applications where positioning or extremely precise control are not required, it’s hard to beat a dc motor and drive. While the basic design of the brushed dc motor has not changed much, the technology used to control the dc motor’s speed has evolved over the years. 

The list was developed using CFE Media’s web analytics for stories viewed on controleng.com, March 30 to April 5, 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.