Control Intelligence

A programmable logic controller (PLC) is essentially a term used for any controller these days. A programmable automation controller (PAC) is the alternative. It could be looked at as a flip phone vs. a smart phone. However, there are distinguishing characteristics. In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Tobey Strauch, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses PLCs, PACs and code.

In the world of motor encoders, there are two main types – incremental and absolute. Incremental encoders do not retain their actual position upon power-up, whereas absolute encoders do. They both give position feedback, which the motion controller can use to calculate velocity, acceleration and jerk. These parameters are necessary for a fully capable motion control system. In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by Joey Stubbs, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses absolute encoders.

Managing editor Anna Townshend spoke with two team members at BioMADE, which is one of nine different Manufacturing Innovation Institutes started by the Department of Defense. This particular group is focused on building the U.S. bioindustrial economy. There are many companies and scientists doing great work using chemical waste products to create new products that we often lack a domestic supply chain for, and the organization is also focused on commercializing and scaling the technology needed to do this work and the workforce to support the industry. Jill Zullo, executive vice president and chief operating officer at BioMADE, has a long career supporting sustainable products and focused on new bioindustrial markets. Most recently, she worked at Cargill, as interim president & CEO of NatureWorks, a Cargill joint venture focused on biomanufacturing development to replace fossil fuel-based materials. Tim Dobbs, data architect for BioMADE's data science team, is a chemical engineer with a degree from the University of Connectivity and a master's degree in Life Sciences. At BioMADE, he designs, models and deploys data models to BioMADE's member organizations. He and the technology team at BioMADE provide the unified computational infrastructure for bioproduction-centered collaboration across industry, academia and government.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, managing editor Anna Townshend shares machine builder and system integrator news highlights from the month of May.

This week's guest on Control Intelligence is Patrick Bunn, owner of Bunn Automation Consulting in Birmingham, Alabama. Bunn's career has included valuable experience with CMC Steel Alabama, Revere Control Systems, EC&S, Hargrove Controls & Automation and Enercon, as well as his volunteer work with younger people in technology, engineering and automation. He will be one of the presenters at OT SCADA CON this July in Houston, where he'll be discussing industrial network protocols and how to use Wireshark software for troubleshooting, as well as the OSI model, which he wrote a very popular on for Control Design. He will speak at the event on July 24 at 3 p.m.

This week's guest on Control Intelligence is Stu Shepherd, co-founder and president of Shepherd Solutions. Shepherd was selected as the winner of the 2025 Joseph F. Engelberger Robotics Award for Leadership. He will be recognized at the awards dinner during the Automate Show in Detroit the week of May 12. Shepherd is nearing 50 years of transforming manufacturing in the Americas through robotic automation and capital equipment-related new business development. His past service includes being chairperson of the Robotic Industries Association (RIA) and the Association for Advancing Automation (A3). In addition to having chaired both A3 and RIA, Shepherd continues as an A3 Robotics board member. He is also a safety committee member and a member of the American Welding Society (AWS), serving on the D16 Robotic and Automatic Welding Committee. Prior to founding his consulting firm, Shepherd's past professional experience includes automation integration roles at General Motors, a well as sales and leadership roles at FANUC America, KUKA, Güdel and Universal Robots. He's also held consulting roles at Gain and HowToRobot, which merged in April 2024.

The decentralized MX-System achieves completely cabinet-free automation of machines and systems. Beckhoff has bundled more than four decades of automation expertise into the MX-System, which performs all of the tasks and gives individual externally mounted components the protection of a classic control cabinet. In this episode of Control Intelligence, editor in chief Mike Bacidore talks with Brandon Snell, MX-System Product Manager at Beckhoff Automation about all thinks cabinet-free automation.

This week's guest on Control Intelligence is robot royalty. Joe Gemma was the 2024 winner of the Joseph F. Engelberger Robotics Award for Leadership, but that was just a touchstone along a career that continues to move robotics and automation forward. Gemma serves on the board of directors for the Association for Advancing Automation, A3, which hosts the annual Automate Show, this year taking place in Detroit the week of May 12. He's also past president and board member of the International Federation of Robotics. He's been the CEO of KUKA Robotics Americas and CEO of Staubli North America, and this month he was named CEO of Wauseon Machine, which specializes in automation, endforming equipment and precision machining, where he's been since 2022.

Message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) is a protocol. It has a broker and a client and can run over Ethernet. In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Tobey Strauch, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses MQTT and how it is used in different industries.

Manufacturing is wrought with safety devices. As we progress further along with cobots and mixing humans and automation together, presence sensing becomes more important, not only for operations, but for functional safety. In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Tobey Strauch, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses machine safety, specifically presence-sensing technologies.

Spring is sprung, and it's time to start making plans for upcoming conferences and trade shows. In this episode of Control Intelligence, editor in chief Mike Bacidore shares two of his favorite upcoming automation events—Automate and the CSIA Conference—and what attendees can expect.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, managing editor Anna Townshend shares machine builder and system integrator news highlights from the month of March.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Charles Palmer, editor in chief Mike Bacidore explains the different types of industrial sensing technologies and why they're critical to ensure safety.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Jeremy Pollard, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses remote monitoring and diagnostics, and how they require security.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Tobey Strauch, editor in chief Mike Bacidore shares the similarities and differences between programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and programmable automation controllers (PACs).

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Joey Stubbs, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses industrial PCs, IT departments and software updates.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, managing editor Anna Townshend shares machine builder and system integrator news highlights from the month of February.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Jeremy Pollard, editor in chief Mike Bacidore explains the many advantages of variable frequency drives.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Joey Stubbs, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses which IEC 61131-3 programming languages are best for safety controllers.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by Larry Stepniak, electrical engineer at Flint Group, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses voltage spikes.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, managing editor Anna Townshend shares machine builder and system integrator news highlights from the month of January.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Tobey Strauch, editor in chief Mike Bacidore explains what unified namespace is and why it's beneficial.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Joey Stubbs, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses presence sensing technology.

In this episode, written by Tom Trinh, senior application engineer of automation at Valin, a subsidiary of Graybar, editor in chief Mike Bacidore dissects four types of industrial robots.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, managing editor Anna Townshend shares which news stories made the biggest waves in the automation industry in 2024.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Jeremy Pollard, editor in chief Mike Bacidore debates the merits of different network protocols.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Tobey Strauch, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses wireless battery-less technology.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses how Rockwell Automation is introducing artificial intelligence into its portfolio of products.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, managing editor Anna Townshend shares machine builder and system integrator news highlights from the month of November.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Rick Rice, editor in chief Mike Bacidore explains the differences between machine vision and computer vision.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Joey Stubbs, editor in chief Mike Bacidore shares what uninterruptible power supplies are.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Jeremy Pollard, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses the uses of wireless HMI.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, managing editor Anna Townshend shares machine builder and system integrator news highlights from the month of October.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Joey Stubbs, editor in chief Mike Bacidore shares how to troubleshoot electrical noise in composite enclosures.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Tobey Strauch, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses object-oriented programming in PLCs.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Jeremy Pollard, editor in chief Mike Bacidore differentiates between programmable automation controllers and programmable logic controllers.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, managing editor Anna Townshend shares machine builder and system integrator news highlights from the month of September.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Rick Rice, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses how to protect HMIs in hazardous environments.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Joey Stubbs, editor in chief Mike Bacidore shares four use cases of radio-frequency identification.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Jeremy Pollard, editor in chief Mike Bacidore discusses how industrial networks differ from commercial networks.

In 2025, AVG Automation, parent company of EZAutomation, a midwestern U.S. manufacturer and factory-direct purveyor of industrial automation systems and components, will celebrate 50 years since its founding in 1975. The automation technology landscape has changed dramatically since that time, but many of the underlying industry needs remain unchanged. Control Design editor-in-chief Mike Bacidore spoke to Shalli Kumar, founder and chairman of EZAutomation and its parent company in this episode of Control Intelligence.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, managing editor Anna Townshend shares machine builder and system integrator news highlights from the month of August.

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

In this Control Intelligence podcast, written by contributing editor Jeremy Pollard, editor-in-chief Mike Bacidore explores networking capabilities with sensing devices.

Pepperl+Fuchs' Michael McCabe explains standardized tags, data transfer rates, capabilities, security and integration

In this episode of Control Intelligence, Anna Townshend shares machine builder and system integrator news highlights from July 2024.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Jeremy Pollard, editor-in-chief Mike Bacidore explains how new frontiers in machine control have their upsides and their limitations.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Joey Stubbs, editor-in-chief Mike Bacidore discusses what makes stepper motors more energy efficient and reliable.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, editor-in-chief Mike Bacidore shares highlights from a panel discussion that took place at the CSIA Exchange.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, written by contributing editor Charles Palmer, editor-in-chief Mike Bacidore discusses lasers and other position sensing.

In this episode of Control Intelligence, managing editor Anna Townshend shares machine builder and system integrator news highlights from June 2024.