Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
self-regulating
a. 1 Able to control itself. 2 Of an organization, establishing standards for itself rather than having them legislated for it by government.
WordNet
self-regulating
adj. designed to activate or move or regulate itself; "a self-activating sprinkler system" [syn: self-acting, self-activating, self-moving]
Usage examples of "self-regulating".
It is clear that in super-industrial society many such tasks will be performed by great self-regulating systems of machines, doing away with the need for bureaucratic organization.
Further, such questions are possible only to a being whose cognitive faculty is exercised volitionally (thinking is not automatic)—a being who is self-directing and self-regulating in thought and in action, and whose existence, therefore, entails a constant process of choice.