General:
Specification or process that follows a specific scheme and that solves a problem. This can be a mathematical formula, a flow diagram or a program.
In control technology:
Algorithm is used to refer to procedures for defining mathematical operators, e.g. controller algorithms for a PID controller for defining the correcting variables.
A differentiation is made between:
- Direct algorithms that calculate the estimated values from an existing data set in one pass.
- Iterative algorithms that process the data set repeatedly and calculate the estimated values in steps and
- Recursive algorithms that recalculate the estimated values during each step with the inclusion of a new measured value set while using information from the previous steps. They are most suitable for use on computers.