The pneumatic and electropneumatic systems in the context of 4 ^th industrial revolution

Pneumatic systems belong to the group of the oldest drives and control systems used in industry. The pneumatic drives are primarily characterized by the simplicity of construction and the good performance-to-mass ratio. Despite the fact that the generation and preparation of the compressed air is a quite energy-consuming and expensive process, the use of pneumatic systems is profitable due to the durability, the simplicity of construction and - as a result - the simplicity of servicing. The machines that are made entirely on the basis of pneumatic systems still constitute a significant percentage of all machines used in the modern industry and still perfectly fulfil their role. Their replacement is always associated with the significant costs. Taking into consideration the context of the "Industry 4.0" and the cyber-physical systems, there is the wide range of problems to discuss, concerning especially the border between the old and the new control technology. This paper addresses the problem of adapting the old pneumatic and electropneumatic control systems to the modern requirements. The basis for these considerations is the existence of some common features in the methods of describing the pneumatic or electropneumatic systems operation and in the methods of programming of the PLC-based systems.