Directions of research in control

✍ Scribed by A.T. Fuller

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1963
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 552 KB
• Volume: 1
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0005-1098
• DOI: 10.1016/0005-1098(63)90013-x

✦ Synopsis

A control system is defined as a dynamic system which keeps some of its variables within certain bounds by means of the complexity of some part of the system. It is argued that control systems were degenerately simple, but that control is now evolving in directions of greater and greater complexity. A critical review of this development is given. It is coneluded that present control theory relies on over-simplified mathematical models and is remote from contemporary practice, which is largely empirical. Two general directions for control research are deduced: (a) an attempt to put the theory of simple single-variable control systems on a realistic basis ; (b) empirical development of controllers for systems of the next stages of complexity. * In the time-scale of evolution it is too early to say whether man is a success or not. Simpler organisms such as insects or bacteria may oust him.

,+ Compare a fish swimming in the sea. Does it really appreciate the existence of water?