A servomechanism is a system formed of mechanical and electronic parts that are sometimes used in robots, with moving or fixed parts. It can also be formed of pneumatic, hydraulic parts and controlled with precision. Examples of servomechanisms are the servo brake or the power steering of an automobile, as well as mechanisms with automatic regulation like an arm of a robot of weld in an assembly chain.
Since the second half of the nineteenth century engineers invented machines capable of regulating their activity by themselves; we call servomechanisms to these machines. These devices can capture information about the environment and modify their status depending on the circumstances and regulate their activity in order to achieve a goal. From 1948, Wiener, the founder of cybernetics, showed that traditional mechanistic categories and, in particular, linear causality did not serve to understand the behavior of these systems. The servomechanisms show a teleological behavior and a circular causal structure, as in the case of the system formed by a thermostat and a heat source. In other words, a servomotor is a special motor to which a control system (electronic board), a potentiometer and a set of gears have been added, which do not allow the motor to rotate 360 degrees, only about 180. The Servomotors are commonly used in modeling such as airplanes, ships, helicopters and trains to effectively control engine and steering systems.
The term was coined by Harold Locked.
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