fluidics

fluidics, branch of engineering and technology concerned with the development of equivalents of various electronic circuits using movements of fluid rather than movements of electric charge. The basic devices used in fluidics are specially designed valves that, like transistors, can be arranged to act as amplifiers and logic circuits. The principal advantage of fluidic systems is that they can be designed to tolerate conditions under which electronic systems could not possibly operate. For example, a fluidic system could operate in the exhaust of a rocket, using the exhaust as its working fluid. Fluidic systems are also advantageous where the system output is to be a flow of fluid, as in a carburetor.

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fluidics [flü′id·iks]

(engineering)

A control technology that employs fluid dynamic phenomena to perform sensing, control, information processing, and actuation functions without the use of moving mechanical parts.