Control System Components and Feedback

Start with the parts

Begin with Control Systems for an overview of sensors, processors and output devices. Its map also includes advantages and disadvantages of control systems. Use those branches to organize your understanding before looking more closely at individual components.

Next, explore the map on output devices controlled by control systems. It describes actuators as devices, such as motors, that react to signals from computers. As you study, note how the map connects the actuator to an action, such as opening a window.

Explore feedback and devices

Move on to Control Processes, which describes feedback as a relationship in which the output affects the input. Compare that idea with the map on control systems and preset values: it shows a microprocessor checking values and deciding what an actuator does when a value is too high or too low.

For a closer look at components, Control devices lists switches, thermostats, transistors and integrated circuits. The hardware maps also list sensors, including humidity, gas, smoke and time sensors. You can compare their branches with the sensor and output-device branches in the overview map.

Use the maps together

This topic page has mind maps rather than quizzes. To practice, cover a branch of a map and explain it in your own words, then uncover it to check what you included. You could also compare the feedback map with the overview and trace the connections between input, processing and output.

The topic is part of the Control Systems, Sensors and Robotics unit in Computing and ICT (programming, computer science, digital skills, educational technology). Use the maps here to focus on components and feedback within that unit. Pick a map and follow a branch that interests you.