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Essentially when each node has its own intelligence for local processing and can be left doing its own thing, only requiring intervention from a central controller when changes need to be made, or for monitoring purposes. Communication is usually by some sort of serial bus. A car is a good example, having many localised processors monitoring brakes, engine etc, all talking through a common CAN bus. Generally appropriate for more complex systems. As to disadvantages/advantages, it is just a matter of what is an appropriate solution.
It is usually better to have autonomy at any given point in case communication gets disrupted, the task then could carry on of its own accord. If you have a central control system, it either means a lot of high speed data communication in a probable electrically noisy enviroment, or in a simpler form, a great deal of expensive interwiring. DCS is generally the preferred option.
Distributed control systems allow to avoid so-called Single Point of Failure. That is, one can make a system where a malfunction at one point would not disrupt the whole system. Centralized systems have a single point of failure -- the central control.
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