A control panel is a flat, often vertical, area where control or monitoring instruments are displayed.

They are found in factories to monitor and control machines or production lines and in places such as nuclear power plant

Nuclear power plant

A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...

s, ship

Ship

Since the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...

s, aircraft

Aircraft

An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...

 and mainframe computer

Mainframe computer

Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...

s. Older control panels are most often equipped with push buttons and analog instruments, whereas today in many cases touchscreen

Touchscreen

A touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus...

s are used for monitoring and control purposes.

See also

• Graphical user interface
  Graphical user interface
  In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
  
  
  • Control panel (computer)
    Control panel (computer)
    Many computer user interfaces use a control panel metaphor to give the user control of software and hardware features.-Computer History:The term control panel was used for the plugboards in unit record equipment and in the early computers of the 1940s and '50s...
    
    
  • Dashboard (software)
    Dashboard (business)
    Dashboard provides at-a-glance views of key performance indicators relevant to a particular objective or business process...
    
     virtual
• Dashboard
  Dashboard
  A dashboard is a control panel placed in front of the driver of an automobile, housing instrumentation and controls for operation of the vehicle....
  
   mechanical
• Patch board
• Plugboard
  Plugboard
  A plugboard, or control panel , is an array of jacks, or hubs, into which patch cords can be inserted to complete an electrical circuit. Control panels were used to direct the operation of some unit record equipment...
  
  
• Telephone switchboard
  Telephone switchboard
  A switchboard was a device used to connect a group of telephones manually to one another or to an outside connection, within and between telephone exchanges or private branch exchanges . The user was typically known as an operator...
  
  
• Electric switchboard
  Electric switchboard
  An electric switchboard is a device that directs electricity from one source to another. It is an assembly of panels, each of which contains switches that allow electricity to be redirected. The U.S...
  
  
• Mixing console
  Mixing console
  In professional audio, a mixing console, or audio mixer, also called a sound board, mixing desk, or mixer is an electronic device for combining , routing, and changing the level, timbre and/or dynamics of audio signals. A mixer can mix analog or digital signals, depending on the type of mixer...
  
  
• Lighting control console
  Lighting control console
  A lighting control console is an electronic device used in theatrical lighting design to control multiple lights at once...
  
  
• Fire alarm control panel
  Fire alarm control panel
  A Fire Alarm Control Panel , or Fire Alarm Control Unit , is the controlling component of a Fire Alarm System. The panel receives information from environmental sensors designed to detect changes associated with fire, monitors their operational integrity and provides for automatic control of...