This handbook gives comprehensive coverage of all kinds of industrial control systems to help engineers and researchers correctly and efficiently implement their projects. It is an indispensable guide and references for anyone involved in control, automation, computer networks and robotics in industry and academia alike. Whether you are part of the manufacturing sector, large-scale infrastructure systems, or processing technologies, this book is the key to learning and implementing real time and distributed control applications. It covers working at the device and machine level as well as the wider environments of plant and enterprise. It includes information on sensors and actuators; computer hardware; system interfaces; digital controllers that perform programs and protocols; the embedded applications software; data communications in distributed control systems; and the system routines that make control systems more user-friendly and safe to operate. This handbook is a single source reference in an industry with highly disparate information from myriad sources.