What is control systems engineering?
Control systems engineering is a sub-branch of engineering which addresses modeling, analysis, design, and implementation of feedback control systems. Perhaps the best way to introduce feedback control systems is to refer to the cruise control system found in most cars. The cruise control system accepts a desired speed command from the driver. The actual speed of the vehicle is measured. This measurement is fed back and subtracted from the commanded speed to produce an error signal. This error signal is processed by a control system which figures out – on the basis of a mathematical model – how much fuel must be sent to the engine in order for the actual speed to “closely match” the commanded speed. The control system tries to achieve this close match in the presence of unmodeled wind disturbances and sensor noise as well as uncertain (or poorly modeled) vehicle/engine properties. In the above car example, the driver specifies speed commands. On autonomous vehicles (e.g. the voyager sp
