Antonym of 'Executive Controller'

Most control systems that I know of involve some sort of executive
controller that's responsible for taking some user's desired result and
turning it into commands for other things, and the 'real' controllers
that actually make the loops work.

Some examples of this are:

A flush toilet, where the 'executive controller' is the flush handle,
and the ball valve and float valve are the two 'real' control systems
that handle sequencing the flush and making sure that the tank fills for
the next go round.

The IR imaging systems I used to work on, where the executive controller
is the system control box that's responsible for managing system modes,
and transmitting user commands like 'increment field of view' or 'slew
to this here position' to the appropriate subsystem.  The 'real'
controllers in this case are the actual motion control loops that make
the lenses move, or causes the turret to slave to a different location.

So is there a recognized name for the 'real' controller?  I always just
call it the 'controller', and if I need to talk about it at all I call
the other thing the 'executive controller'.  But I'm giving a
presentation in a few weeks to a bunch of people who aren't control
systems folks, and if I use 'controller' and 'executive controller'
they'll be confused.

Of course I've seen the terms 'motion controller' and 'process
controller', but those are just 'real' or 'non-executive' controllers --
they don't give me a general term to use.

I'm thinking 'dynamic controller'.

Any opinions?

Thanks.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

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