Information and communication technology embraces control: Status report prepared by the IFAC Coordinating Committee on Computers, Cognition and Communication

A new approach in control engineering (“Information Processing for Action”) is presented, in which control, computers, communication and cognition play equal rôles in addressing real-life problems from very small-scale devices to very large-scale industrial processes and non-technical applications. Thus, the C2 paradigm of “Computers for Control” is shifting towards the C4 paradigm of “Computers, Communication and Cognition for Control” providing an integrated perspective on the rôle computers play in control systems and control plays in computer systems. This change is mainly due to new developments in computers and knowledge management, and the rapidly emerging field of telecommunications providing a number of possible applications in control. Control engineers will have to master computer and software technologies to be able to build the systems of the future, and software engineers need to use control concepts to master the ever-increasing complexity of computing systems.