This note on history has been taken from "ABriefHistory ofFeed back Control" available at

https://lewisgroup.uta.edu/history.htm
historyofcontrolsystems
#brief
Feedback control developed in accordance ofthe requirements.
The first record
I feedback control appears in 3rd century BC from the
of

need to determine time.

accurately
Kotesibios invented the floatregulator for
Valve that
water clock.
Water
->

*
in an
i ->

water out

Heson's Temple
5- aksonopen seeas time
Door Opener

Float Philos ofByzantium lamp

by to
keep constantoil level in a

Use ofPrime movers in Industrial Revolution. With this arose

for automatic control systems.

a requirement

Control devices like floatregulators, temperature regulators, pressure

regulators, speed controllers were invented.
float
regulators for maintainingconstantwater level in boilers,
in tanksfor water distribution etc.
Temperature regulators for maintaining temp in
formances
Pressure
speed
fly balls.
for
regulators maintainingpressureinsleamenginerotating
 All these till the posiod ofIndustrial
designs Revolution based was

on trialand-error with
greatdeal ofengineeringintuitions.
a

In 1840, G.B.
Airy from British Astronomer
Royal at
Greenwich the
was
first to
differential
use equations the in

analysis and study instability of the closed loop systems.

usingspeed
He was to control the movement
of telescope
on of
a a

when he the feedback control loop was

improperly designed.
In J.C. Maxwell analyzed the
1868, stability ofWatt's flyball
governor. Linearized differential eye
the
ofmotions and found the
Cls polynomial of the system. Established thatsystem
all the roots are negative
stable
is it
He real part of

Routh numerical technique to determine when

E.J.
provided a

a
cls polynomial will have stable coofs. (1877).
IndependentofMaxwell, I.E. Vishnegradsky (1577) analyzed the
stability ofregulators using differential equs.
A. B. Stodola (1893)
the regulation of
the basis
on
V
of ishnegradsky's work

analyzed
the model ofthe
water turbine while also
a
including
actuator and the
He introduced the motion delaysof actuating
the
ystem
mechanism.
He posed the problem of
of time constant

to A. determing stability from CIs polynomial

solved it (1895).
Hurwitz
independently
who

A.M. (1892-1893) studied the stability ofnonlinear diff

Lyapunov
equ using the generalized motion of energy. His work used was in

Russia. The
work
gained popularity after 1960.

A British Engineer O. Heaxisicle invented operational calculus

in
dynamical
1892-1898. He studied the transientbehaviors of
systems, which introduced a notion equivalent to transfor function.
 of
Eva mass communication
development
At Bell Labs,
during 1920's to 1930's frequency domain analysis
developed by P.S. de Laplace, J. Fourica, A. L.
Carchy and others were

being explored and used in mass communication system.

The voice
signalsin
long telephone lines
periodically amplified. But
need to be care

be taken thatnoise not

had to amplified.is

H.S. Black, in 1927, demonstrated the usefulness

of feedback -ve

in distortion reduction. H. Nyquist(1932) the Nyquist

Stability
criterior
designing stable amplifiers. H.A. Bode (1955) used the
for
magnitude and phase free response plots of complexon & investigated
a

closed loop stability using

notions ofgain margin & phase margin.

The would Wars

During offeedback control
these times, development
systems
became a matter ofsurvival.
E.A. invented the
used Sperry in 1910
the stabilization and
gyroscope
which was
in
steering ofships - aircrafts
N.
Minowsky (1922) was the first to use PID controller.

With the "Theory of

Seomechanisms" by H.L. Hazen in

1934, the use mathematical control theory

ofonboard accurate in

pointing ofguns moving ships & aircrafts was

done.
A.C. Hall, 1941, demonstrated thatthe freg-domain
in
technique developed in Bell labs could be used to
confrontnoise effects,
② and used this to design
a control

for an airbone radar.

system
The the MIT Radiation lab
approaches block
design in based was

on
transfer functions, diagram & frequency domain
technologies. These control designs were
ofgreat success.

In 1947, H.B. Nichols developed Nichols Chart

for the design offeedback systems.
klocking at North American Aviation,
his root locus technique
W.R. Evans (1948)
presented which provided a

direct
way
to
provide the closed-loop poles the s-plane.
in

Subsequently, during the 1950's much control work

was focused on the s-plane and obtaining desired closed
loop stop response as in terms
ofrisetime. I overshoot
and
settling time.
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