Control Engineering Magazine

Figure 1: Control Engineering September/October 2026 cover image courtesy: Control Engineering Control Engineering released its September/October print and digital edition at www.controleng.com/magazine. The digital edition highlights opportunities for more education in eBooks, topical newsletters and podcast articles. The digital edition has live links to additional online content.

Sensorless speed and positioning control without an encoder Efficiency comparable to IE5-class motor performance ±0.05% speed variation and positioning accuracy of 200 p/rev Compact motor design that can reduce machine footprint Available in configurations including brake, keyway shaft and IP65 protection Mitsubishi Electric US, Inc.’s Industrial Automation Division has added 400V models to Mitsubishi EM-A series sensorless servo motor lineup.

Hilscher North America has introduced the Hilscher comX 90CN, an embedded communication module designed to support secure, multiprotocol industrial communication in space-constrained devices. Unlike the standard comX 90, the comX 90CN does not include pre-installed network connectors. Manufacturers can instead position the physical network interfaces on their device baseboard.

Industrial automation is evolving rapidly, driven by open standards, pragmatic digital transformation and advanced process control. August’s and September’s most-read articles reflect this dynamic balance between forward-looking innovation and core engineering fundamentals, tackling everything from the adoption of IEC 61131-10 for seamless PLC application portability to the real-world impact of artificial intelligence on the plant floor.

Dynamic simulation allows teams to understand cause-and-effect relationships and validate responses before changes impact safety or production. Courtesy: Emerson Leading articles posted during July and August on Control Engineering’s website include simulation benefits, automation trends, manufacturing expansion, control-valve sizing, machine vision tips, HMI-SCADA integration, PID control help, digital transformation answers and research on AI plant floor impacts.

Control Engineering provides summaries of mergers, acquisitions and capital transactions summaries by the Bundy Group. Courtesy: Arrowfly In the September 2026 monthly report for the Control Engineering website, the Bundy Group, which helps with mergers, acquisitions and raising capital, reported 16 transactions. Companies included in the Bundy Group September 2026 reports include Dart Controls, Flow Control Holdings, Open Automation Software, Power Motion, among others.

Figure 1: Virtual commissioning using a digital twin is among benefits of using Vention software, said Brendan Sterne, chief product officer, Vention, at IMTS 2026. Courtesy: Mark T. Hoske, Control Engineering, Arrowfly In virtual commissioning and other industrial automation applications, digital twins can work with agentic AI software and physical artificial intelligence (AI) hardware, including machine design and motion control.

Machine controller with dedicated motion control functionality provides advantages for machine designs. Offloading motion control functions to servo drives can improve machine performance. Using servo motor features can optimize a machine’s motion control performance. For motion control, the overall control architecture plays a big role in machine performance. Here are three ways that performance can be improved using the right motion control architecture.

Arrowfly launched AI for Engineers, a resources for engineers and technical leaders apply artificial intelligence in their work. AI for Engineers initiative integrates a dedicated news desk, a conference, original research and an advisory board, grounded in the engineering community’s most trusted editorial brands. The AI for Engineers event takes place Sept. 20-22, 2027, and registration is open now. Arrowfly, an award-winning B2B media and marketing company, on Sept.

Setpoint (SP) gap action can reduce the spread of disturbances to the rest of the process caused by process noise or a sticking control valve. The SP notch and floating SP gap algorithms work best for reducing the effect of process noise and sticking control valves. The SP V-notch and error squared gap algorithms are less effective at reducing the effect of noise and should not be used to manage a sticking control valve.