Control Systems

Basic introduction to cybernetics and control engineering. Introduction to theory, methods and tools that provide a cybernetic understanding of the world, i.e. that it is possible to change the behavior of a dynamic system using controllers and achieve what is called circular causality, which means that a system influences itself to achieve a desired behavior. Knowledge and skills about the behavior of dynamic systems, modeling of dynamic systems, simulation of dynamic systems, control of dynamic systems, estimation for dynamic systems, as well as evaluation of performance in connection with control and estimation. Knowledge and skills about the structure, design and implementation of a control system. The course integrates modern AI tools as a resonance partner in modeling, simulation, and analysis, and uses learning spirals to develop the judgment, prompt literacy and holistic systems understanding of the students.

Knowledge:

• Definition and use of key cybernetic concepts.
• Basic history within cybernetics and control engineering.
• General structure of a control system.
• Modeling of dynamic systems with emphasis on linear differential equations, including on state space form.
• Time response, frequency response and stability properties of dynamic systems.
• Dynamic phenomena such as transient response, steady state, transient phase, stationary phase, overshoot, oscillations, limit cycles, etc.
• Control through feedforward and feedback.
• Feedback with emphasis on PID control.
• Estimation using state estimators.
• Nonlinearities in a control system.
• Evaluation of performance using performance metrics.
• Simulation of dynamic systems using numerical solvers.
• Use of AI tools in a reflected manner.
• Holistic systems thinking.

Skills:

• Structure, design and implementation of a control system.
• Modeling, simulation and analysis of simple dynamic systems.
• Design, implementation, tuning and evaluation of controllers and estimators.
• Application of holistic systems thinking to all types of phenomena.
• Foundation for advanced courses in cybernetics.

General competence:

• Fundamental cybernetic understanding of systems.
• Communicate about cybernetic concepts with the public.
• Communicate and collaborate on professional issues with cyberneticists.

Lectures, guest lectures, self-study, exercises and AI-supported simulation activities.