CDS 101: Principles of Feedback and Control Lecture 1.1: Introduction to Feedback and Control 30 September 2002

Lecture

This lecture provides an overview of the basic ideas in feedback and control, including the major principles of feedback and many examples of applications. The goal of this lecture is to introduce some of the basic ideas in feedback systems and provide examples that will allow students to identify and recognize control systems in their everyday world. CDS 101/110 course administration is also covered in the second half of the lecture.

• Lecture Presentation

Mud card responses [advanced search]:

• I don't understand how a wristwatch works as a feedback control system (you mentioned it in class). It just runs constantly until it runs out of batteries.
• Is it possible to put lecture videos on the web?
• The lecture was a bit too fast; can you slow down?
• Do the Robocup players have a sense of individual roles/identities, or are they drones (like the Borg)?
• How old is Prof. Murray really?
• In example 2, I don't understand why you said u_engine=k*(v_des-v). Why that form?
• Does Professor Murray have office hours?
• Why do they call it "open-loop" control?
• Why were the mud cards handed out at the end of the lecture?
• Are there set limitations on closed loop systems?
• How does the Internet congestion control system work?
• Design of Dynamics needs better definition & examples
• What does "Robustness" mean? Is a stable system always robust?
• What are the major challenges that keep our control systems from being as advanced as biological systems in size / complexity?
• What do you expect of someone who is auditing the course?
• What does closed loop mean?

Reading Material and Handouts

Handouts from lecture

• Lecture handout
• Course syllabus
• Homework #1 + course survey

Required reading

• R. M. Murray (editor), Control in an Information Rich World: Report of the Panel on Future Directions in Control, Dynamics and Systems, SIAM, 2002 (to appear). Chapter 2.

• For Spy in the Sky, New Eyes, NY Times, June 2001.

Supplemental reading

• K. J. Åström, Control Systems Design, Preprint, 2002. Chapter 1. (Caltech access only)

Homework Set #1

This homework set is designed to provide some examples and intuition about control systems. The first problem asks the student to find 10 control systems they encounter in their everyday environment and describe their features (sensing, actuation, computation, effect). The second problem asks the students to read an article from the New York Times and comment on the control system that is described. Finally, a MATLAB problem uses the cruise controller example from class to explore basic MATLAB and SIMULINK functions.

• Homework Assignment (v2)
• SIMULINK cruise control module (for problem #3): hw1cruise.mdl, documentation
• SIMULINK rolling mill module (for problem #6): hw1rollmill.mdl, documentation

Modifications to the homework (link above is always the latest version):

• 2 Oct 02: corrected errors in problem set
  • In problem 6(b) of HW #1, change the problem to read "zero to twice the default simulation value" instead of "zero to 10x".
  • Updated hw1cruise.mdl to eliminate warning messae (no change to homework)
  • Hint on output of rolling mill simulation
    
• 30 Sep 02: handed out in class

Frequently asked questions on homework and TA hints:

• Problem set #1 has taken a long time and problem set #2 looks longer. Can you shorten the problem sets?
• Problems with output of rolling mill simulation