Process control is the discipline of regulating continuous industrial processes, such as chemical reactions, temperature, flow, and pressure, to maintain outputs at desired setpoints despite disturbances. It relies on sensors, controllers, and actuators arranged in feedback loops, using techniques from PID control to model predictive control. It is fundamental to manufacturing, energy, and process-industry automation.
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- Classic process control uses cascaded PID loops tuned for stability and disturbance rejection, while advanced control employs model predictive control to handle constraints and multivariable interactions. Modern plants integrate distributed control systems and SCADA, increasingly augmented with data-driven soft sensors and optimisation layers that adjust setpoints for efficiency and quality.