Your machine projects might not cost quite as much as the latest Mars exploration, but technological achievement seems to constantly reach new heights, nonetheless. And like the Curiosity project, industrial machines are growing more complex in their own rights. Without dependable technology from dependable automation suppliers, the performance of those machine designs could end up way off course. See which automation suppliers made the grade in this year's Readers' Choice Awards. Also in Control Design's September issue: Help us explain the reported skills gap, which doesn't seem to add up; see why a conveyor manufacturer brought its panel build in-house; and take a ride back to 2001, when the industry was already debating the merits of PCs vs. PLCs and finding that the two camps were drawing closer.

Read the entire September issue now.