Controls Definition and 53 Threads

So, I had a discussion with a friend of mine, neither of us are in controls but I was curious about an answer here. In a PID controller, we essentially take in an error value, do a mathematical operation on it and determine the input (controller output signal B) needed to the actuator to produce...

This is pretty amazing. Could this point to a future where we all can do this and much more with implanted brain chips?

Summary: If you own an Android phone and are interested in helping me, please navigate to Settings → Sounds. Here, you will find the volume controls (in some phones, you will have an option "Volume" under which you will find all the controls). Please give me the following: a screenshot of the...

Hello there, please help if you are able.. So we have a tank with input volumetric flow and output volumetric flow The system is controlled by the height of water in the tank h(t) = hdes + (√h(t))*(-A2*(√2g) / A1) - h'(t) I am trying to find a transfer function for this system but I do not...

hi, I'm designing a 50ftx50ft, 8-cable Cable Driven Parallel Robot and am thinking this is a pivotal decision. the corner posts are 10ft tall and the machine should be able to lift 100lbs at least 5ft off the ground. traveling speed of the end effector is less important than accuracy but I'm not...

Okay, this is probably going to be way below your pay grade, but bear with me because I know nothing about electric motors except that you plug them in, turn the switch, and they work. I've seen some instances where people have taken DC motors from treadmills and used them to power lathes and...

Hello all! I'm an electrical/controls engineer by day and farmer by night. I need some insight on an issue I'm having at the farm. We have a greenhouse where I've setup automatic temperature controls. A small PLC reads temperature in the greenhouse. If the temperature gets too high, we open...

Found this abstract while browsing through some papers, and thought it was quite humorous: Endy, Galanie & Smolke. 2015 Complete absence of thebaine biosynthesis under home-brew fermentation conditions. bioRxiv doi:10.1101/024299 Full text freely available at...

Hello all! I am going out on a limb here looking for information as I am unable to find the answers scouring the internet. Essentially I want to know how a person would go about getting a job working with Gas Turbine Tuning and Controls? I've got an engineering background, lots of gas turbine...

Hi all, I've finally narrowed down my career interests to robotics and controls. I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering Technology. I'm looking at a couple different grad programs at a local school: MSEE with a focus on robotics and controls. M. Eng. in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on...

I don't know if this is the place to ask this, but I am a mechanical engineering student about to finish a degree, and I have recently been researching hydraulics. After watching a rear loading garbage truck eat bag after bag going down my street, I can't help but wonder a few things. I...

Homework Statement Find the Bode Plot, and the phase and gain margins for the uncompensated system. Homework Equations G = (3.6s+6)/(s(.1s^2+.7s+1)) The Attempt at a Solution I understand the phase and gain margin ideas, but the gain margin hinges on the phase crossing -180 degrees, and in...

Hey everyone. I'm a student of Mechanical Engineering right now and even if I'm still a few years ahead to choose a field to major in, I like to have something in mind to focus on. First of all, I really appreciate the aerospace field. Airplanes and spacecraft were my main motivation in...

I am a controls engineer mainly with experience in distributed control system. I am looking for a job as controls engineer in astrophysics field. I though there must be opportunities in telescope facilities and other sensory arrays for space vehicles but so far I have come empty handed with...

Hello, I'm trying to figure out the free body diagrams for the inverted pendulum problem and I'm having trouble figuring out the one equation: ##Psin\theta + Ncos\theta - mgsin\theta = ml\ddot{\theta} + m\ddot{x}cos\theta## I've never really seen a mixed sum of forces equation before where some...

I have to design a circuit that can control how long it takes for it to travel a given distance. I do not have much progress. I am wondering what type of circuit this is?

I've seen various types of boilers in industries e.g. 7 bar, 10 bar, 30 bar etc. What exactly in the operations / design of these boilers sets the steam pressure that will be produced? For simplicity let us restrict ourselves to fire tube coal fired boilers that produce saturated steam...

I'm interviewing someone for a senior controls engineer position (this is the same position I hold now). I'm having a hard time coming up with technical questions that would separate him from a less experienced guy but can still be answered within the span of a short interview. I have all of...

can you do it by increasing the series resistance?

For whatever reason, the bio experiment I need to analyze was done with respect to two controls. The "treatment 1" organisms were observed with respect to the control organisms to yield one set of treatment 1 and control data. Then, the "treatment 2" organisms were observed with respect to the...

So, every time i get a new game i have to change the controls, because the default controls for moving are wasd, but i prefer esdf. To me wasd makes no sense. first off, esdf are the home row keys so my fingers naturally go towards those. the only way this could possibly make sense is if you...

Hello PF, I am currently an undergrad student who is pursuing a degree in electrical engineering with an emphasis on controls. I have 2 years worth of experience within industrial controls while working for a machinery OEM but I would like to see what else it out there. I am curious about...

Hello PF, Something has arisen in the past couple weeks and really has me questions what to do with my entire life. I don't believe anyone on the forums knows my true identity, so I'll go into a little bit more detail than I would typically be comfortable doing. I'll first give some...

Hey all. I will get straight to the point. I am about to get into graduate school and I have the option to choose between Controls & Robotics OR Communication & Signal Processing. I am kind of not sure what to pursue, the reason is because I feel if I choose one I will unfortunately lose the...

I'm attempting to solve a control systems problem, however I'm stuck on the first step. The system is specified with a difference equation: y(k+2)+y(k+1)+0.16y(k)=u(k+1)+2u(k) So I need to convert this back onto the usual pulse transfer function form to use one of the standard methods of...

Matlab Simulink--Using PID controls? I need to use Simulink to determine an approximate numerical solution to the equation of motion for a robotic arm (image below). The equation of motion for the system is J (\theta)'' = \tau - mgl cos (\theta). (An ordinary, 2nd order nonlinear differential...

Brief background: 8 yrs exp in mechanical design/engineering of medical devices and CVD/PVD equipment for semiconductor B.S. in Mechanical Engineering P.E. in Mechanical Engineering (strength of materials & machine design focus) I'm looking for guidance/ learning recommendations for...

I thought that the brain, specifically the medulla in the lower brain stem, controls heatbeat. But according to what I am reading, heartbeat is caused by electrical impulses in the heart which cause the heart muscles to contract. What is the source flow of this electricity? Does it come from the...

Brand spanking new to the forum. Registered just to ask this question... We have a machine at work that has the following parameters: tempurature pressure time This machine machine processes a prodcut that has two properties: quantity stiffnes shade (Not really sure if the shade...

I am currently majoring in Electrical Engineering as an undergraduate at a university. While I am not entirely sure of the specifics of what I want to do after graduation, I do know I want to go into control systems design, perhaps concentrating on power systems. I also want to keep the doors...

I've been trying to decide on which side of engineering is for me, electrical or controls. I love the variety that comes with being an electrical engineer, but at the same time my boss wants me to learn not only the electrical side of things, but how to program and troubleshoot plcs as well...

My company uses MS TFS for source controlling and I find this really difficult because we have to code on VMs (log on VMs and handle the code in TFS). I would like to make a suggestion to change this into SVN using command line or Tortoise GUI tools. But the client seems not to let publicly seen...

Hi everyone! I'm a Computer Engineering student, and for the Master Degree i think i would like to proceed my career in Controls Engineering, because i really like the subject, anyway my interests are aerospace, robotics and physics, do you think a controls engineer can have a significant career...

Hello PF, I have been really interested in controls theory, and the applications of controls. I'm currently pursuing an undergraduate in mechanical engineering and in some places I've heard that controls/dynamical systems has lately been more closely related to Electrical engineering but has...

What happens if an infrared remote control is pointing and coming at your eye really fast while transmitting... would the frequency of the em waves increase? If so, how fast would it need to be traveling in order to appear red?

The Frontal Lobe controls Emotion / Personality / Decision Making. But if you look up Temporal Lobe it says this handles Emotion. Can you tell me what I am not getting?

Hello all, I am a mechanical engineering major who is fascinated with control theory. At my school you can specialize in controls as either a mechanical major, or an electrical major. Does anyone know if being a mechanical major is a disadvantage at becoming a control system engineer? My...

With an ESC powering a brushless motor, does the ESC get power feedback? Sorry I don't know the terminology, so I'll ask it a couple of ways. The power from the esc runs through a big length of wire windings. I get this isn't a short circuit since enough of the power is turn into heat, does the...

What is effect on closed loop when one has unity gain at the center of the pass band for an open loop ? Is this desirable? If not how could situation be improved? Are there any consequences for the suggested improvement?

I have a question regarding an oscillator design from a controls perspective. An ideal harmonic oscillator has just 2 poles, both on the imaginary axis, and their location along the axis determines the frequency of oscillation as well as the amplitude. Now, please correct me if this is...

It’s Wednesday, so you know what that means?* Time for yet another privacy overhaul over at everyone’s favorite social network.* That’s right, Facebook has gone back to the drawing board with their privacy settings and tried to move them more …...

Good day every1, I am considering a path in Instrumentation and Controls Engineering but I am not 100% of the job availably and which industries they are likely to work. Could someone please give me a briefing on what Exactly Instrumentation and Controls Engineering is about?

Not so much the math and theory of controls but the actual physical implementation and make up of control systems. Something that tells you how to go from the Laplace domain to real life.

Hi friends, Presently I am in my 1st semester of my Masters and have taken course on Basic controls and Modeling, I don't have any course on Vehicle dynamics offered in our University. So can you please give sources and videos where I can get basic dynamics of vehicles so that I can apply the...

1. The problem Remember that acceleration is a change in velocity. There are 3 driver-operated controls in an automobile that will cause the automobile to accelerate. 2. The attempt at a solution Is it axis of rotation, tangential speed, and uniform circular motion?

So, I was playing around with remote controls last night and realized that, under the right conditions, I could see a very faint, blinking red glow from the LED that transmits signals to the TV when I held down a button. Looking this up, it appears that most such LED's shine at 940 nm, which is...

I found http://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/circ/wailing.htm" schematic for creating a siren sound, but I can't figure out which component could be altered to change the cycle time of 6 seconds. If I had to guess, I'd say either C1 or C4, but I'm really lost as to how this schematic works, so I...

Consider the following model of a car, where v(t) is the speed and θ(t) is the throttle angle v(dot) ̇= -av+bθ where a and b are positive constants. Now express the model in state space form with the states as position and velocity, assuming the measured output is the velocity. Is (A,C)...

Simple treble and bass controls in audio equipment use RC networks that have a phase shift equal to a radian per neper, or about 6.6 degrees per dB of boost or attenuation. Are there analog treble or bass control circuits that have no phase shift?

Hi, I have 4 edit control boxes that I need to except the WM_LBUTTONDOWN message to set focus to them when clicked with the mouse. I have the setfocus events working perfectly. I even manipulated the OnOK override event with the "Enter" key to go to the next edit control box when pressed and...