Introduction and Brief History of

Feedback Control
CONTROL ENGINEERING
Engr. Teofilo Gregorio D. Ayo IV

Instructor I
Introduction to Control Engineering

DEFINITION

A key area of engineering that reaches across

many technical areas is the multidisciplinary field of
control system engineering.

▪ Control engineers are concerned with understanding

and controlling segments of their environment,
often called systems.

▪ Systems - are interconnections of elements and

devices for a desired purpose.
Introduction to Control Engineering

Control engineering deals with the design (and

implementation) of control systems using linear, time-invariant
mathematical models representing actual physical nonlinear, time-
varying systems with parameter uncertainties in the presence of
external disturbances.

• Sensors - device that provides a measurement of a desired external

signal.

• Actuators - device employed by the control system to alter or

adjust the environment.
Introduction to Control Engineering

CONTROL SYSTEM

A control system is an interconnection of components

forming a system configuration that will provide a desired system
response.

▪ The basis for analysis of a system is the foundation provided by

linear system theory, which assumes a cause–effect relationship
for the components of a system.

▪ An open-loop control system utilizes an actuating device to

control the process directly without using feedback.
Introduction to Control Engineering

CONTROL SYSTEM

▪ A closed-loop control system uses a measurement of the output and feedback of this signal to
compare it with the desired output (reference or command).

▪ The measure of the output is called the feedback signal.

Introduction to Control Engineering

CONTROL SYSTEM

▪ Closed-loop control has many advantages over open-loop control including the ability to reject
external disturbances and improve measurement noise attenuation.
Introduction to Control Engineering

CONTROL SYSTEM

▪ Many feedback control systems contain more than one feedback loop called a multiloop feedback
control system.
Introduction to Control Engineering

CONTROL SYSTEM

▪ Furthermore, as the systems become more complex, the interrelationship of many controlled variables
must be considered in the control scheme which we call a multivariable control system.
Brief History of Feedback Control

FLOAT REGULATOR

▪ The first applications of feedback control appeared in the

development of float regulator mechanisms.

▪ The water clock of Ktesibios

▪ An oil lamp devised by Philon in approximately 250 b.c.

used a float regulator in an oil lamp for maintaining a
constant level of fuel oil.
Brief History of Feedback Control

James Watt’s FLYBALL GOVERNOR

• The first automatic feedback controller used in

an industrial process is generally agreed to be
James Watt’s flyball governor, developed in
1769 for controlling the speed of a steam
engine.
Brief History of Feedback Control

WATER-LEVEL FLOAT REGULATOR

• The first historical feedback system, claimed by Russia, is

the water-level float regulator said to have been invented
by I. Polzunov in 1765.
Brief History of Feedback Control

1769 James Watt’s steam engine and governor developed

for controlling the speed of a steam engine.

James Watt
Scottish Inventor
 Mathematical Model 1868
J. C. Maxwell formulates a
mathematical model for a
governor control of a steam
engine

1913 Mechanized Assembly Machine

Henry Ford’s mechanized assembly machine

introduced for automobile production.
 Feedback Amplifiers 1927
H. S. Black conceives of the negative
feedback amplifier and H. W. Bode
analyzes feedback amplifiers.

1932 Method for Analyzing Stability of Systems

H. Nyquist develops a method for analyzing

the stability of systems.
Antiaircraft Gun with Active Control 1941
Creation of a gun director by David
B. Parkinson of Bell Telephone
Laboratories.

1957 Space Age

Sputnik launches the space age leading, in

time, to miniaturization of computers and
advances in automatic control theory.
 Personal Computer 1983
Introduction of the personal computer
(and control design software soon
thereafter) brought the tools of design
to the engineer’s desktop.

1995 GPS

The Global Positioning System (GPS) was

operational providing positioning, navigation,
and timing services worldwide
2014 INTERNET OF THINGS

Internet of Things (IoT) enabled by

convergence of key systems including
embedded systems, wireless sensor
networks, control systems, and automation.
End of Slide. Thank You!