1. A whirlwind tour including applications to robots and everyday life Cybernetics and Feedback Control

2. Cybernetics and Feedback Control • Possibly the central idea in engineering, including also chemical and biological systems • Thousands of years old, but lost to Western civilization (along with many other ideas) until rediscovered in 1600s • Crucial in AI & art robotics as well

3. What is Feedback Control? • A self-regulating system where there is a goal state and a way of measuring the system’s current state. This generates an error signal which is used to guide the system toward the goal state.

4. An Example: Balancing

5. Chinese Water Clock • Large basin of water, with float valve to maintain constant volume • This created constant pressure on aperture, which caused constant water flow • Mechanical apparatus to measure flow

6. Chinese Water Clock

7. Brief History of Feedback Systems • B.C. … Chinese water clocks • mid 1600s … Hubbell’s ovens (chicken hatcheries) • late 1700s … James Watt’s steam engine governor • 1800s … automata • early 1900s … classical control theory (telephone signaling; warship control) • 1940s … Norbert Weiner (“cybernetics”) and WWII weaponry • 1950s … Macy conferences; W. Grey Walter’s turtles • 1960s … A.I.

8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Centrifugal_governor.png Watt’s Steam Engine Governor

9. Cabaret Mechanical Theatre

10. Walter’s machina speculatrix

11. the water clock lives on…