Honeywell TDC 2000 (1975)
Honeywell introduced the TDC 2000 distributed control system, moving chemical plant and refinery operators from analog control panels to computer-driven digital control loops. It was the first system to hand routine process control to machines.
Plants reduced labor and improved reliability as operators supervised rather than manually adjusted.
Distributed control became the industry standard for process industries, setting the template for computer-supervised physical operations.
Willow's control agents follow the same pattern: machines take over routine adjustments, with humans setting boundaries and supervising.
