The technical areas covered by IFAC are taken care of by IFAC's Technical Committees. These are responsible for the planning and monitoring of the technical events, such as symposia, conferences and workshops, with the NMOs acting as hosts. The technical areas are also promoted by the Technical Committees in other ways, such as establishing contacts with other international organizations, publication of reports on selected topics, etc.
The technical areas are placed into nine groups (called Coordinating Committee) as shown below. Each technical area coincides with a Technical Committee. Below are the Coordinating Committees, the list of technical areas, the number of the respective committee and the Chair responsible for the activities.
| Systems and Signals | (1) | Xi Ren Cao |
| Modelling, Identification and Signal Processing | (1.1) | Hakan Hjalmarsson |
| Adaptive and Learning Systems | (1.2) | Alexander Fradkov |
| Discrete Event and Hybrid Systems | (1.3) | Alessandro Giua |
| Stochastic Systems | (1.4) | Charalambos Charalambous |
| Networked Systems | (1.5) | Karl Henrik Johansson |
| Design Methods | (2) | Patrizio Colaneri |
| Control Design | (2.1) | Alessandro Astolfi |
| Linear Control Systems | (2.2) | Luc Dugard |
| Non-Linear Control Systems | (2.3) | Xiaohua Xia |
| Optimal Control | (2.4) | A.M. Tarasyev |
| Robust Control | (2.5) | Faryar Jabbari |
| Computers, Cognition and Communication | (3) | Matjaz Colnaric |
| Computers for Control | (3.1) | Marek Wegrzyn |
| Cognition and Control | (3.2) | Antonio Barros Ruano |
| Computers, Communication and Telematics | (3.3) | Klaus Schilling |
| Mechatronics, Robotics and Components | (4) | Detlef Zuehlke |
| Components and Technologies for Control | (4.1) | Roberto Horowitz |
| Mechatronic Systems | (4.2) | Masayoshi Tomizuka |
| Robotics | (4.3) | Hideki Hashimoto |
| Cost Oriented Automation | (4.4) | Mireille Bayart |
| Human Machine Systems | (4.5) | Wan Chul Yoon |
| Manufacturing and Logistics Systems | (5) | Laszlo Monostori |
| Manufacturing Plant Control | (5.1) | Carlos Eduardo Pereira |
| Manufacturing Modelling for Management and Control | (5.2) | Jose Ceroni |
| Enterprise Integration and Networking | (5.3) | Herve Panetto |
| Large Scale Complex Systems | (5.4) | Mietek A. Brdys |
| Power and Process Systems | (6) | Sigurd Skogestad |
| Chemical Process Control | (6.1) | Francis J. Doyle III |
| Mining, Mineral and Metal Processing | (6.2) | Kazuya Asano |
| Power Plants and Power Systems | (6.3) | Dr. Ing. Istvan Erlich |
| Fault Detection,Supervision&Safety of Techn.Processes-SAFEPROCESS | (6.4) | Jakob Stoustrup |
| Transportation and Vehicle Systems | (7) | Lars Nielsen |
| Automotive Control | (7.1) | Gianfranco Rizzo |
| Marine Systems | (7.2) | Antonio Pascoal |
| Aerospace | (7.3) | Houria B. Siguerdidjane |
| Transportation Systems | (7.4) | Anastasios Chassiakos |
| Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles | (7.5) | Michel Devy |
| Bio- and Ecological Systems | (8) | Fan-Lun Xiong |
| Control in Agriculture | (8.1) | Noboru Noguchi |
| Biological and Medical Systems | (8.2) | Steen Andreassen |
| Modelling and Control of Environmental Systems | (8.3) | Andrea Castelletti |
| Biosystems and Bioprocesses | (8.4) | Jaime Moreno Perez |
| Social Systems | (9) | Gheorghi Dimirovski |
| Economic and Business Systems | (9.1) | Fei-Yue Wang |
| Social Impact of Automation | (9.2) | Frederique Mayer |
| Developing Countries | (9.3) | Ibrahim Eksin |
| Control Education | (9.4) | Bozenna Pasik-Duncan |
| Supplemental Ways of Improving International Stability - SWIIS | (9.5) | Peter Kopacek |