History of Automatic Control 1996

This is a graduate course given at the Department of Automatic Control. The purpose is to provide an historic perspective on our young field. The examination consists of a term paper and a presentation, group work is permitted.

• The course is based on the book S. Bennett A history of control engineering 1930-1955. Additional material will be handed out.

• Good material for for further reading is given in .

• There are seven lectures
  • Lecture 1 Introduction - Black Boxes and White Noise
  • Lecture 2 Governors and Stability Theory
  • Lecture 3 Process Control
  • Lecture 4 Airplanes and Ships
  • Lecture 5 Feedback Amplifiers
  • Lecture 6 Servomechanism Theory
  • Lecture 7 Emergence of Modern Control
  •  

• There will be assignment for each lecture. There are so many interesting things to look at so there are many other possibilities. Here are some examples.
  • The PID Controller
  • Important Concepts
  • The Concept of Controllability
  • Stability Theory
  • Least Squares
  • The Impact of Feedback
  • Automatic Control in Sweden
  • Applications of Automatic Control
  • Classic books on Control
  • Automatic Control and Scientific Instruments
  • The Role of Organizations
  • Looking at the IFAC World Congresses
  • Looking at the CDC
  • Looking at the ACC

Any suggestions for improvement, both of the course and of this page are welcome.

Karl Johan Astrom <kja@control.lth.se>