In technology , the development and use of precise measuring, analysis, and control equipment.
Among the oldest known instruments of measurement was the armillary sphere, an astronomical instrument used in ancient China and Greece. The compass was a striking advance in navigational instrumentation made about the 11th century. Theodolites made accurate determination of locations possible in the 18th century. Instrumentation developed rapidly in the Industrial Revolution . Manufacturing required precision instruments, such as the screw analysis .