Control Intelligence

It’s the beginning of the new year, and everyone’s capital budget is going to be reset and revised. People will come out with their five-year and 10-year and 20-year plans, and once again plant management will ask the question: “Can we upgrade the control systems?”

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Tobey Strauch, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses when to upgrade control systems.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Tobey Strauch, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses on-machine sensing and IIoT implementation.

Once you’ve finished listening to the podcast, take Control Design's quiz about on-machine sensing and IIoT implementation.

Many electrical engineers will ignore mechanical properties of a machine because it’s not their specialty. Control systems engineers cannot do that. Controls require an understanding of the electrical and mechanical interface.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Tobey Strauch, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses how to monitor and manage the health of hydraulic systems.

During commissioning and after, if you hear three definitions of I/O checkout and then get residual failures after a down and an install because no one is going off a commissioning plan, writing up a test plan or adhering to a commissioning plan, then there is a problem.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Tobey Strauch, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses machine commissioning and I/O checkout.

With the advent of common communication platforms, new layers of automation devices became available to control systems on the plant floor.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Jeremy Pollard, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses the impact of I/O on the interoperability trend.

In factory automation, safety systems are no longer the peripheral add-ons of the past. They are integral to the design, operation and long-term viability of production lines. As automation increases and machinery becomes more interconnected, engineers are routinely tasked with specifying safety controllers, networks, sensors and safety I/O devices that carry a defined safety integrity level (SIL).

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Joey Stubbs, editor in chief Mike Bacidore shares why SIL matters.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, which was written by contributing editor Shawn Cox in June of 2023, more than two and a half years ago, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses the predictions for control systems. Cox’s article was revisited by many as we closed out 2025, and it became one of Control Design's most popular reads in December. Let’s revisit his thoughts from the summer of 2023.

Control systems engineering requires a broad knowledge base of many components. Why? Applications of all shapes, sizes, functionality and needs are brought to machine-builder tables, and automation is requested to provide solutions to manufacturing problems.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Tobey Strauch, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses motor starters and variable-frequency drives.

Did Industry 4.0 go away? No. It seems that, behind the scenes, the open-source platform community is just working along, developing the next go-around of competitive devices for the traditional automaton folks to keep up with.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Tobey Strauch, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses Ethernet-APL.

Integration of PLCs and robots has become standardized. Standard robot command interface is a means for robots to increase its interface capacity with programmable logic controllers, but SRCI has been around for a while.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Tobey Strauch, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses the standard robot command interface.