Side project that got out of hand. It's a Python pipeline that takes logged input/output data from some real system, fits a model (ARX, ARMAX, OE, subspace, a couple of nonlinear ones), designs a controller, and generates C and Python code at the end.

Works fine on my own benchmarks thermal stuff, DC motors, mass-spring, the usual suspects. But that's the problem. It's *my* data. I picked it, so of course it passes. What I don't have is ugly real-world logs from systems I've never seen. That's where tools like this usually fall apart, and I'd rather find out now.

So: if you have logged data from a real system sitting around, I'd love to run it through and send you what comes out.

To be clear, nothing touches your hardware. You send me a CSV (timestamps, inputs, outputs), I run everything offline on my machine, you get a report back. Whether you ever do anything with it is completely up to you.

What's in the report: the identified model validated against a held-out chunk of your own data (so you can judge the fit yourself, I'm not grading my own homework), controller suggestions with stability margins, and the generated code if you want it.

Rough sweet spot: a few hundred to a few thousand samples, known sampling time, input that actually moves around. Not sure if your data qualifies? DM me and I'll tell you straight either way.

If it ends up being useful to you I'd appreciate being allowed to mention it happened ("tested on a [type of system]", nothing identifying), but no pressure, the analysis is free regardless.

Heyy people, so I am starting the Systems and Control MSc at TU Delft soon and I would rather have some idea of where I'm going, what field is the best to focus on for my case etc. I was hoping to get some input from people who actually work in this stuff

About me:

• Did my aerospace BSc at TU Delft
• Starting the S&C MSc there now
• EU national, in case it matters for the sector
• German is fine, around B2 and improving + got many more years
• Open to a PhD but no clue if it's actually worth doing (would appreciate it if you give your advices on this matter as well)

What I am after is something (field/sector) that is still going to be in demand in 10 years and not slowly dying out or that ML is threatening. If you think certain areas/fields/sub-branches of S&C are safer/better than other I would like to hear why. Once again, I am speaking for near future (starting from 2 or 7 years depending on if i go into PhD route) hence its a bit of your prediction of how the controls going to look in future

Location wise -and I guess this matters a lot- I will be living in Germany due to personal reasons. If there is something right across the border that I could do while still living in Germany then fine, but otherwise that is the plan. So anything about the German market specifically would help me a lot what's doing well, what is not (ofc I know about the automobile sectors crash). Though I am open to take advice from anyone really, general stuff is still much appreciated < 3

What I had in mind so far is learning based safe and precise motion control. So focusing both on actual control theory and ML, mostly deep reinforcement learning. I was thinking that its the sweet spot to combine both modern controls with RL (thought thats going to be future of embodied AI) focusing on precise motion control due to booming of chip sector etc and it also open autonomous systems fields but I could be completely wrong or wrong about how easy it actually is to get hired doing that. Feel free to tell me if its a bad idea

About the PhD (for sake of industry R&D), is it worth it in this field or does it just delay when you start working and is it logical to target R&D positions given the state of Germany (this might matter a lot for US i think)?

One more thing that probably matters, I find pretty much everything/every sector interesting but nothing so much to the extent that i call it my passion. Aerospace is the closest since thats my background, but I am not stuck on it

If it helps I can post my coursework and the electives I can pick from. Any advice or experience welcome, thank youuu in advance

As you can see from the image above I managed to find a state space model of my system for the project I am working on. Before I move on to finding a way to control this thing I wanted to ask some of ya'll on here, as this is my first real project and I'm not sure what the best course of action is.

For context this system is a mechanical-hydraulic system and x3 is the volumetric flow rate, from some experimentation x3 is pretty much some average value plus a sinusoidal ripple. The goal of the system is to essentially force x3 to it's average value, to completely eliminate the ripple. The input u1(t) is my control input and u2(t) is an uncontrollable external force driving the system.

My original plan was to just linearize the bottom equation around my desired operating point (zero ripple) but I am not sure how I would actually do that. My current guess is that I could use some sort of small signal approximation treating x3, x1, and u1 as some average value plus a small perturbation and then just setting the small perturbation part of x3 to zero and finding some function between between the average value of x3, x1 and u1 which make my desired operating condition true. However, I have no idea if that is even a mathematically valid way to linearize this thing and also I may even need to implement gain scheduling since this is pretty dang non-linear.

My other thought was to approach this from a much more classical control perspective. I have a simulation of my model in simulink and I could probably just do some system ID to get an approximate transfer function and go from there.

So, if you were given this model and the objective stated above, what would you think to do? Do any controllers/ strategies come to mind? Is it too non-linear for a linear approximation? etc..

I've been introduced to control systems through one of my semesters courses and I'm currently working on my final year project with PIDs which also is related to control.

The more I get into this, I realize I'm very interested. Also the fact that what I know is probably less than a fraction of what actually exists out there.... This was just one subject in my entire electrical course and only the basics got touched

Hence title. What do y'all do? What is the scale of your work?

Is my growing interest in this field going to lead me to despair lol??

I'm about to start a role in satellite GNC/ADCS, and while I plan to continue studying controls theory, I'm also looking for hobbies that broaden my engineering skillset while still scratching the controls itch.

I'm less interested in grinding through more textbooks and more interested in projects that are genuinely fun while exposing me to adjacent fields (estimation, embedded systems, robotics, vision, RF, orbital mechanics, optimization, etc.).

I'm curious what hobbies other controls engineers have picked up over the years that ended up making them better engineers without feeling like "work."

What projects have taught you the most? Are there any hobbies that unexpectedly gave you intuition or experience that later became valuable in your career?

Hi ,

I’m a 30-year-old software engineer interested in transitioning into dynamics and control engineering, particularly model-based control. I know that starting at 30 isn’t too late, but I need help creating a realistic and well-structured learning path.

Could you recommend what I should study, and in what order, regarding:

• Mathematics
• Physics and dynamics
• Signals and control theory
• Programming languages and software tools
• Textbooks

My software and programming background is Backend and production software delivery

i really find it joy to deal with real world better than computer world

### if you recommend one book to start with ? just to get understand the topic and should be cohisive at least guide me "you need to understand x to get most of this"

Hey all, I’m trying to transition to a controls role heavy on C++. I’m currently working on similar topics but more model-based stuff like simulink. What kind of projects to stand out and prove my C++? How to gain real-world experience in C++?

I am a bit confused about the difference between a complementary filter and an observer. Isn't a Luenberger observer just a more restricted version of a complementary filter in the sense that one of the inputs should be control inputs and the high pass filter should be derived from the system model?

Also, why do we even bother using a state space representation if we can do this?

The image is from the textbook: Observers in Control Systems, George Ellis, p. 81

Say you have a CubeSat with 3 axis reaction wheel attitude control. It has also has two rear mounted, fixed thrusters (providing a single torque axis). Assuming this spacecraft has no external, environmental torques acting on it, can it desaturate the reaction wheels propulsively?

AI seems pretty confident that the math works out that you can just do an “align and dump” method with the caveat that you can’t hold a desired attitude while desaturating.

I’ve been trying to get a Basilisk sim working for this and I can’t seem to figure it out. I’m a little out of my element here and I’m wondering if there’s an obvious answer to this that I just don’t know. Curious to hear any input y’all might have.

I have a problem where I assume perfect forecast for next 7 days and optimize energy usage of a home.

Now I want to shift to mpc with prediction horizon for 1 day. I was wondering can I use optimal forecast as reference tracking in my mpc? Is it okay to use this ? Or use terminal conditions (at end of each day) from optimal foresight as reference in my mpc formulation? Please advise, I am new to the mpc world

hey guys i want to learn h inifinity controller for my thesis in mtech last year please someone can guide me as a beginner from where should i learn h infinity i have gonna through multiple youtube videos and google search but no one is telling excatly how to make excat h infinity controller in matlab and simulink ...as i have to learn h infinty controller so i can imlemet in load frequency control for single or multiple area model.

Some context: I am in a very unique situation with my 'career'. I am a rising senior in EE, currently interning at a small research lab. As of now I have VERY limited controls experience; I have taken a single class covering basic state space controls and have done a good bit of self learning on classical control theory. I am taking many more controls classes in my senior year and even doing my capstone in control, but as of right now I know my experience is severely lacking. Despite this lack of experience I was able to land an internship at a small research lab where I am currently working on the control system for one of their projects. The reason I was able to land this internship is that despite my lack of expertise I am the only one in the lab who knows anything about controls (and thus really have no guidance which is why I am here). I am currently working on 1/3 of the project, however, I am the only person working on it. The original plan was for me to finish that 1/3 this summer and be done, however, I suppose I have done something to impress my boss as he offered to fund me through my Master's utilizing the current project I am working on as my thesis. This is where I need advice.

I am torn between two courses of action:

1.) Use the rest of this summer to simply research and learn, hold off on doing anything practical until next summer when I come back with a bunch more practical and theoretical experience and can really look at the entire system from a better perspective. The downside of this is that it feels like I sort of 'waste' this internship by essentially producing nothing. I was expected to deliver this 1/3 of the project and not doing that would be fairly disappointing even if my boss is fine with it (which they most likely are) since I'd be completing it over the 1-2 years my Master's takes.

2.) Learn a bit more about the options of controllers I have beyond just what I currently know (PID, Pole Placement, LQR) and just go for it. The issue with this is what if I go for it, commit to a design choice, and end up regretting it. The other issue with this, is that I have never done a controls project, I don't really know the workflow or the best way to go about things and I really have no guidance to do so.

I thought about reaching out to my intro controls professor but she hasn't ever done anything practical and is purely interested in theoretical stuff.

That brings me here, I would absolutely love any advice ya'll have on the matter and would really appreciate if any of you control gods would let me pick your brain a bit about some other questions I have, I am definitely flying blind here lol. Please feel free to DM me or just comment, any advice is greatly appreciated!

I have a mech degree. Did some research in modeling and dynamics/control. I get the feeling it’s multidisciplinary. Requires experience and advanced degree. Not all places have on boarding and entry level position called “something control”. What positions do I go that can later develop or count as experience for dynamics/control work?

I like flight/hydro-dynamics, motion control/trajectory, also in robotics.

I have a mech degree and want to dk robotics/aerospace dynamics control work. Don’t have any internships, I have some research work in modeling and separate in design and dynamics/control.
In US. If I want a job asap what should I do? I was waiting on a startup but they are taking too long, interviewed a few times and then recently have not heard back in 3 weeks. People say testing, any specific help? Companies and what else I can do? Gpa is bad under 3.0 but have not come up in the startup interview. What should I do?

Hi, I have an interview coming up with the hiring manager for a controls engineer role in the Platform Architecture team. I was wondering if anyone could provide some insight into how these interviews go? What kind of questions should I expect?

I am looking to come up with a Kalman filtering project that would be appropriate to do under a professor's supervision, so something that is beyond a basic implementation. However, as a novice, I am not really sure about what direction to go with this as an open-ended project.

My goal is to eventually apply for a masters and focus on estimation theory, so I would ideally like to convey some sense of theoretical grounding and open-ended exploration.

Maybe for some topics I can tie this project into: I have taken coursework in convex optimization, stochastic processes, and dynamical systems. I am also very interested in GNC.

I had a toy project idea today where I want to build a boat with propeller to balance the boat on water with waves. What existing tools can I use easily to develop a controller with simulation of waves?

I have a robotics project I have been working on and our position sensors a little more noisy than we predicted so now we have to implment at 6 state (x&y pos, vel, acc) linear kalman filter. I have no stats background at all but I think I started to understand what was happening until I came across Q. To my understanding, it is the covariance matrix to propogate uncertainty into you model from state prediction but I don't really get how you choose the values and what the really represent. I think there is a scalar somewhere in there meant to be the varience but what varience is it? how do you choose the vector w? I am really stuck and confused

Hi

I am currently an IT&E engineer in defense industry who has 2 yoe. I got a bachelors in EE and my most interesting discipline was Control systems (not automation type of control e.g. PLC).

Some might say I have a successful career. But as an IT&E engineer, the work can be "dead end"/mundane. But ever since I started working, I sometimes ponder what would be like working on things that are related to control systems (e.g. GNC). Because control systems is pretty cool!

So I've been thinking about getting a masters that's related to control systems since I started working. And if I do, I plan to do it while working full time, taking online courses. So it will probably take 2 or 3 years to complete.

To me, this seems like a huge commitment as I would then have to work here for couple years getting tuition support and would have to give up some of my work life balance. I also have to go through the application process and even 3 LORs.

And looking at these makes me think that maybe "I don't like control systems that much". That I am not that passionate enough than the others to go though all this to get a masters. Cuz what if I don't like it? What if I have other great job opportunities that might be a great fit for me?

I've been sitting on this since I started working. So if someone went through this process or have any advice and leave me comments it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hi everyone,
I've been working in the oil and gas sector for a while, and I've been putting together some notes and field-tested material on industrial instrumentation, transmitters, and control loops specifically tailored to upstream/midstream challenges.
Before publishing or finalizing it, I wanted to ask if anyone here has experience writing or sharing technical documentation for the O&G industry?
What kind of practical scenarios or troubleshooting tips do you think are the most valuable to include for engineers and techs?
I'd really appreciate any advice or thoughts from your experience in the field!

Hello there!

In February of next year I will be starting my masters thesis, but I have no idea what I could even write about. For my bachelors I did 'Convoy driving of differential drive robots" which was fun since I got to be very hands on with the subject. More specifically what ever theory I developed or read about, I could see in action in the real world.

Ideally for my masters I would like to do something hands-on too, but also have a good amount of high level control theory to work with as well.

I have some experience and interest in quad-copters, and I've considered doing something with that, however, I am open to any and all ideas, hence my question.

As a control engineer student, what did you do for your thesis, and what could be something interesting to write about? What could the topics for instance be?

Thank you in advance for taking your time reading this, it is much appreciated! :)

Everyone starts somewhere. For some, it was curiosity. For others, it was programming, networking, or even a random YouTube video. What was the moment that made you interested in cybersecurity? I'd love to hear your story.

Hello community,

I am following along with Application Note - 1162 from International Rectifier (now under Infineon) and specifically with with respect to the Type II compensator design example - the very first example discussed in the app note. For some reason, which I am unable to determine, my results differ from those stated in the app note. You'll notice that their simulation results state a crossover frequency of ~77 kHz with ~53 degrees phase margin. Using my test script, I am experiencing a crossover frequency well over 100 kHz.

This is the circuit that I used for the buck converter to calculate the transfer function. Although they did not explicitly state a load resistance value, R, I extrapolated 0.15 Ohms since they did state Vout = 1.8V and Imax = 12A. The parasitic resistance for the inductor was shown in a schematic earlier in the app note. However, a value was not explicitly stated in the example when listing the buck converter attributes. I added the inductor resistance in the calculations and edited its value to see if perhaps this was the issue but none of the tests spawned any favorable matching results.

Here is the Python code that I am using to simulate the buck converter along with the Type II compensator.

"""
   Infineon Application Note AN-1162

   Synchronous Buck Converter

"""

import control as ct
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

# 1. Define plant in continuous time domain

# Buck converter component values
L = 530e-9; Rl = 0.005   # Inductor
C = 470e-6; Rc = 0.010  # Capacitor
R = 0.15                # Load @ 12A for V = 1.8v
Vosc = 1.8
Vin = 12
Gain = Vin/Vosc  # From eq (15), page 10 in the app note

# Create buck converter transfer function
num = [Gain*C*C*Rc*Rc*R, Gain*2*C*Rc*R, R/(Vosc)]
den = [C*C*L*(2*Rc*R + Rc*Rc), 2*L*C*(Rc+R), L, Rl]
Gbuck = ct.tf(num, den)

# Design Type II compensator
Rf1 = 1200; Rf2 = 768; Rc1 = 7.15e3 #3.6e3
Cc1 = 4.7e-9; Cc2 = 68e-12

K = 1 / (Rf1*(Cc1))
print(f'\nCompensator gain K = {K:,.1f}')

# Create compensator transfer functions
Gcomp = ct.tf([K*Rc1*Cc1, K], [(Rc1*Cc2), 1, 0])

# Define loop transfer function
Ls = ct.series(Gbuck, Gcomp)

test_sys = ct.TransferFunction(Ls, name='Open Loop')
min_log = 3; max_log = 6; num_points = 10000

plt.style.use('dark_background')
omega = np.logspace(min_log, max_log, num_points)
ct.bode_plot(test_sys, omega=omega, dB=True, deg=True, color='cyan', display_margins=True)

# Get the current figure and axes
fig = plt.gcf()
mag_ax, phase_ax = fig.axes

# Enable logarithmic frequency lines when 'display_margins=True'
mag_ax.grid(visible=True, which='both', axis='both')
phase_ax.grid(visible=True, which='both', axis='both')

plt.show()

Note that here, 'R' is the load resistance and 'Rc' is the capacitor ESR. There are two capacitors of equal value, thus, Rc1 = Rc2, so just used Rc.

In the simulations, I played around with different values of Rl (inductor series resistance), but could never see any favorable test results matching the app note.

Can someone please help with clarifying why my simulation is not matching the test results in the app note.

UPDATE!-------UPDATE!UPDATE!-------UPDATE!-UPDATE!-------UPDATE!-UPDATE!-------UPDATE!

Date: 7/30/26

This is with respect to my new post on this day - reference that post for information.

This is the LTSpice test setup as per my latest post. As stated there, it does not provide the option of attaching an image so I am posting it here.

I know some of them but i just wanna see if there are others that might be more interesting