Good afternoon,
Here are some video lectures about automatic control:
http://home.hit.no/~finnh/videos/
Regards,
Finn
Saturday, April 4, 2009
My first entry: About cybernetics
Still, 25 years after I graduated, I am childlishly fascinated by cybernetics, which are techniques to control something so that it behaves as you want, loosely defined. I work with technical systems, but there are many similarities with the way human and social systems are controlled. For example, when a teacher tries to improve the teaching, he or she can implement the same principles as I would use to control a technical system. If you want to improve a personal skill, you can apply cybernetics. And if an organization want to improve quality of their outcome or activity, they can apply cybernetics.
So, what are the principles of cybernetics? First, the desired outcome - or reference or setpoint - must be defined. In other words, you must define your desire. Then, you must measure or observe the actual, present outcome, or result, or output, from the system. Then, you compare the observed output with the desired output, to get an idea about the difference between them. This difference is the control error or control deviation. And here is the clue about control: You use the error as the driving force of adjusting or manipulating the inputs to the system (e.g. machine, teaching, organization); You keep on changing the inputs until the error is sufficiently small. For example, the teacher can improve the teaching by measuring the students' skills.
Since this control principle uses outcome or result to adjust the input to the system, there is a feedback from output to input, and hence, the term feedback control is used. Feedback control is the most important control principle - in any system, technical, social, biological.
Control can be improved (the control error can become smaller) by exploiting more information about the system than just the observed or measured output, namley by using process knowledge in terms of a conceptual model (in technical systems the model is typically mathematical) and measurements of disturbances or external variables or "forces" acting on the system. For example, the teacher can improve the teaching if he has an idea about how the students reacts to different teaching methods, and if he has information about their prevoius knowledges and their ability to learn.
So, the area of cybernetics includes, in addition to feedback control, modeling (typically mathematical), and measurement (sensor) technology.
I guess most of my posts will be about cybernetics....
Finn
So, what are the principles of cybernetics? First, the desired outcome - or reference or setpoint - must be defined. In other words, you must define your desire. Then, you must measure or observe the actual, present outcome, or result, or output, from the system. Then, you compare the observed output with the desired output, to get an idea about the difference between them. This difference is the control error or control deviation. And here is the clue about control: You use the error as the driving force of adjusting or manipulating the inputs to the system (e.g. machine, teaching, organization); You keep on changing the inputs until the error is sufficiently small. For example, the teacher can improve the teaching by measuring the students' skills.
Since this control principle uses outcome or result to adjust the input to the system, there is a feedback from output to input, and hence, the term feedback control is used. Feedback control is the most important control principle - in any system, technical, social, biological.
Control can be improved (the control error can become smaller) by exploiting more information about the system than just the observed or measured output, namley by using process knowledge in terms of a conceptual model (in technical systems the model is typically mathematical) and measurements of disturbances or external variables or "forces" acting on the system. For example, the teacher can improve the teaching if he has an idea about how the students reacts to different teaching methods, and if he has information about their prevoius knowledges and their ability to learn.
So, the area of cybernetics includes, in addition to feedback control, modeling (typically mathematical), and measurement (sensor) technology.
I guess most of my posts will be about cybernetics....
Finn
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