Welcome to the Engineering Media Blog … or the Intuitive Control Theory Blog … or the Control Engineering Blog … or … // TODO: Come up with a sweet name
This blog is a collection of short articles that I hope in some small way will help people who are struggling to understand the big picture of control engineering. You know, answering questions like what is control engineering? How does system modeling play a role? What are different ways to accomplish state estimation? And why are there so many different controller designs?
I think there are a lot of excellent resources out there that describe a portion of control engineering, but I haven’t found many that describe all aspects in one simple overview. At least not one with the words DON’T PANIC on the front in large, friendly letters. So, that’s what I aim to create: An informal and approachable overview of control engineering.
This blog is based on a talk I give to students and early career engineers that attempts to list all of the seemingly disparate concepts that we learn in school and tie them together in a way that makes more intuitive sense.
Since this is supposed to be a high-level overview, we’re not going to go too deep into any of the mathematics. If you want to dive deeper into any particular topic that I cover, check out resourcium.org where you can learn more.
Alright, so this is the goal: Explain all of control engineering as simply as possible.
The trouble with words
Words are important. People have attributed meaning to them so that we can communicate our thoughts and ideas to each other more effectively than things like pictures and gestures can by themselves. The trouble with words is that both people in a conversation have to ascribe the meaning to the words otherwise there can be confusion.
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
I may say 'bandwidth' and expect that you know that I’m talking about the frequency at which the amplitude response in a system reaches -3 dB. But if you’re more familiar with filter design, your initial thought might be that bandwidth is the width of the passband or the stopband in a filter. Both are right in their respective context, but can lead to confusion if we have this misunderstanding with words.
The point is, I’m going to happily write something that I think is just perfectly described and you’re going to read it and think it’s a garbled mess. And part of that reason might be because we have different context and experience with the various words that I’m writing (it’s also likely that I just wrote something completely wrong or confusing)!
So, I’m going to try to be extra-vigilant in defining words related to control engineering so that we can minimize the chance of confusion - even at the risk of droning on too long on one topic (like I’m doing now). If you come across something that is confusing, please help me turn the illusion of communication into the reality of communication by leaving a comment or a question.
Alright, at this point are there any questions?
Why start a blog when you could make a video on the topic? Or why not finish that book you started forever ago? I hear you ask.
Ok, fair enough. I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to share this story with a larger audience and I think a blog is the winner for both selfish and unselfish reasons.
Unselfish reasons
It’s changeable. I can post something, receive some feedback from people like you on what’s missing, wrong, or confusing, and update the post. This is much easier to do than if I put it into something immutable like a video or a book. Because of this, I think I have a greater chance of making something truly useful for everyone.
I think a blog is easier for people to refer back to a second time. I know I can’t ever remember which video I heard something in when I want to watch it again, but with a blog you can just ctlr-f and search for a term. Plus, you can print it or save it if you need to.
Selfish reasons
I think it’ll make me a better controls engineer. Every time I put something on the internet I get really helpful comments and questions and I always learn something I didn’t know before. I’m looking forward to more of that!
I would love to be able to give more talks, run workshops, and consult on control engineering at companies and universities and I’m hoping more people click on the courses and talks page to see what else I have to offer (hint hint).
Now, I’m aware that I’m very good at starting things with these grand intentions and then never completing them (I’m looking at you book). I don’t really want a half-finished blog that I also feel guilty about never completing, but I promise this is going to be different!
For one, I’m making no promises at all. I reserve the right to post on an inconsistent schedule and then to stop posting altogether with no notice - possibly without even finishing the thread I’m in the middle of. In this way, I won’t feel guilty when I enevitably stop posting. But, even with that risk, I think something is better than nothing, so I’m going to give this a shot.
So, without further ado, welcome to the world of control engineering. Let’s get started!
Read on: #1: What is control engineering?