Hans-Joachim Zander

Hans-Joachim Zander

Hans-Joachim Zander (born August 27, 1933 in Memel ) is a German engineer and university professor . He is one of the pioneers in control technology .

Life and education

Hans-Joachim Zander was born in Memel in 1933 as the son of the machinist Hans Zander and his wife Gertrud. When he was five years old, his mother died and left three children.

From 1940 to 1944 he attended the elementary school in Memel and in the summer of 1944 took the examination for the grammar school. Immediately afterwards, the family had to leave Memel due to the war and was relocated to Hartha in the Döbeln district (Saxony). The father did not return from Soviet captivity until 1947. In Hartha, H.-J. Zander completed eight years of elementary school in 1948, after which he began high school in Waldheim and Mittweida .

After graduating from secondary school in Mittweida in 1952, he began training as an electrical mechanic. In 1959, after studying electrical engineering at the Technical University of Dresden , he acquired the academic degree of graduate engineer specializing in low-voltage technology with a focus on control engineering under Heinrich Kindler , director of the Institute for Control Engineering. He belonged to the first generation of students, from which the professors Wolfgang Weller (Berlin) and Herbert Ehrlich (Magdeburg / Leipzig) also emerged. Due to his achievements, Kindler offered him a position as a research assistant in the control engineering department in Dresden (later institute status) of the German Academy of Sciences (DAW) in Berlin, which he also managed. Hans-Joachim Zander started his career in 1959 at DAW in Dresden. He worked in the switching systems department ( control technology ) from the start.

Control technician in science

Hans-Joachim Zander initially dealt with the development of components and units for control technology. A special result is the contactless system developed by Zander for error signaling in industrial control systems, which worked on the basis of special Translog modules and for which patents have also been registered. This signal system, which was produced in the Elektro-Apparate-Werken (EAW) Berlin-Treptow, can be seen from today's perspective as one of the first simple process control systems for control systems. A similar system was also developed by the Siemens company, so that patent oppositions were made from this side, but these were rejected.

From the mid-1960s onwards, Zander worked primarily in the field of the theory of switching systems and finite automata and was concerned with the development of methods for the design of industrial controls. First, Zander addressed the problem of state minimization , which results in a reduction in the number of storage elements required. In 1968 he was awarded a Dr.-Ing. With his dissertation from Heinrich Kindler . PhD. He gave a lecture on this issue at the 4th IFAC World Congress in Warsaw in 1968, which was also published in the IFAC journal Automatica . Subsequently, Zander developed and published various methods for minimizing combinatorial switching systems with multiple outputs as well as methods and circuit structures for avoiding hazards in sequential switching systems.

When the department head for switching systems Siegfried Pilz received an appointment as professor for information technology at the TH Ilmenau in 1968 , Zander took over the management of this department of the institute. The main focus of the department in the 1970s was the development of a comprehensive program system for the computer-aided design of digital controls (RENDIS), which was developed in cooperation with the Industrial Institute for Electrical Systems (IEA) Berlin and implemented for Robotron mainframes. The conception and the basic algorithms of RENDIS were published in 1973 by Zander and his responsible employees Eberhard Oberst and Peter Hummitzsch in the trade journal measure, control, regulate . This program system also received a lot of international attention.

Since the end of the 1970s in control technology with the advent of processor and PLC technology, the general change from the connection-programmed controller (VPS) with relays and contactless logic elements to the programmable logic controller (PLC) became apparent, so there was great interest RENDIS slightly from a control point of view. But it rose in institutions that dealt with the circuit design of microelectronics and with the development of digital computers .

In 1971, Zander submitted his habilitation thesis , for which he was awarded the academic degree "Doctor of Science" ( doctor scientiae technicarum , Dr. sc. Techn.). This degree is in 1991 in Dr.-Ing. habil. been converted.

In the course of the academy's reform from 1968 to 1972, the Institute for Regulation and Control Engineering Dresden was classified as a technical cybernetics division in the newly founded Central Institute for Cybernetics and Information Processes (ZKI) Berlin. In 1971, Zander was appointed head of the switching systems department as well as overall management of the Dresden area. In 1973, Zander was appointed professor at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (AdW) by the academy president Hermann Klare , as the DAW was named after the academy reform.

In 1972 the "International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis" ( IIASA ) was founded in London as a joint research facility by 12 leading industrial countries from West and East , particularly by the USA, Soviet Union, FRG, GDR and others. It was established in Laxenburg Castle near Vienna and here internationally known scientists have worked together in the field of cybernetics, automation and computer science in an interdisciplinary manner, with the GDR inter alia through Professors Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski and Manfred Peschel (Berlin), Horst Strobel and Hans-Joachim Zander (Dresden) was represented. Through this cooperation, Zander was able to compare his research status at the AdW directly with the international level and expand his international contacts.

Professor at the university

The control engineering and process control research area at TU Dresden, founded in 1969, was headed by Heinrich Kindler until his retirement in 1975. In 1978 Heinz Töpfer was finally reassigned from the TH Magdeburg to Dresden as his successor, his previous duties in Magdeburg were taken over by Siegfried Rudert and Ulrich Korn .

Töpfer was interested in a specialist in control technology in Dresden and was able to inspire Hans-Joachim Zander. He had a lot of experience in the field from research and industrial applications as well as from his academic teaching in Dresden and Magdeburg. Finally, Töpfer reached an agreement with the AdW that in 1983 Zander could switch from the Dresden branch of the ZKI to the control engineering and process control (later automation technology ) research area at the TU Dresden. Zander was now able to bring his extensive experience in the field of control technology to academic teaching and university research. In addition to the actual control technology, the area of ​​controlling industrial robots also belonged to his area of ​​responsibility.

Zander was initially committed to completing the technical equipment base for teaching and research. The result was a “robot laboratory” and, in addition to the already existing control engineering internship, a laboratory internship “control of discrete processes” using VPS and PLC.

His research activities concerned, in chronological order:

• Head of fundamental work to create a collision protection system for industrial robots in cooperation with the Central Institute for Metallurgy (ZIM) Leipzig.
• Participation in the development of a uniform technical language for programmable regulation and control devices in cooperation with the Kombinat Elektro-Apparate-Werke (KEAW) Berlin-Treptow.
• Contribution to the creation of a theory for the modeling of control systems in connection with methods for the model-based design of the controls.

From 1993 to 1997 Zander worked as a freelancer for the company Automatisierung Dresden GmbH (ADG) founded by Professors Heinz Töpfer and Albert Jugel , where he worked on control and regulation tasks for industry.

In 2000, when Zander was already retired, K. Janschek, Head of the Institute for Automation Technology at the TU Dresden, expressed in a personal conversation that "process models" should also be used when designing control systems, similar to control engineering . After this suggestion by Janschek, Zander dealt intensively with the problem again for several years and presented a practical procedure. Zander then published about this in the trade journal automation technology in 2005 and 2007.

During his entire activity as a scientist at the academy and as a university lecturer, Hans-Joachim Zander was committed to the development and further expansion of the field of control technology. At the same time, he laid an important foundation stone for a broad and future- oriented specialist profile in automation technology. It is largely thanks to his work since the early 1960s that the field of control technology has developed successfully. All in all, Zander has had a lasting impact on his field. Hans-Joachim Zander is one of the pioneers in control technology.

His research results were also reflected in six book publications and over 50 publications in specialist journals and proceedings of international conferences. He is involved in 14 patents. He was a member of the board of the Scientific and Technical Society for Measurement and Automation Technology (WGMA), head of the control theory committee of the WGMA, head of the technical cybernetics cooperation council and a member of the editorial board of the international journal Digital Processes .

Fonts (selection)

• The contactless Translog signaling system in block form (first value, last value, new value). In: Elektrie, Berlin . Vol. 17, H. 2, 1963, pp. 41-44.
• Control and regulation technology . Series of tutorials 5. Electrical components: discontinuous controls. Study group Werner Kamprath, Darmstadt 1967.
• For structural analysis and minimization of the status of subsequent circuits in different operating modes . Dissertation, Technical University, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Dresden 1968.
• For the structural synthesis of sequential switching systems . Dissertation B (Habilitation), Technical University, Information Technology Section, Dresden 1971.
• RENDIS - a universal program system for the computer-aided design of digital controls . In: measure, control, regulate, Berlin . Vol. 16, H. 4, 1973, pp. 142-144 and H. 7, 1973, pp. 281-284 (with E. Oberst and P. Hummitzsch).
• Design of follow-up circuits . Automation technology series, vol. 158. Verlag Technik Berlin 1974.
• IFAC Symposium Discrete Systems . Dresden, 14. - 19.III.1977. Sponsored by the International Federation of Automatic Control, organized by the Scientific and Technical Society for Measurement and Automation Technology (WGMA) in the Chamber of Technology, Chairman: HJ Zander. Publishing house KDT / WGMA, Berlin 1977.
• Logical design of binary systems (three editions). Verlag Technik Berlin 1982, 1985, 1989, ISBN 3-341-00526-9 .
• Modeling the overall behavior of microprogram controls . In: Electronic Information Processing and Cybernetics (EIK), Berlin . Vol. 21, H. 7/8, 1985, pp. 371-384.
• Control and regulation devices . In: Töpfer, H. (Ed.), Automation technology from a manufacturer's point of view . Bürkert Steuer- und Regeltechnik, Ingelfingen 1996, ISBN 3-00-000 666-4 .
• Control technology - a branch of automation technology . In: Automation technology, Munich . Vol. 51, no. 3, 2003, pp. 136–142 (with Heinz Töpfer ).
• Design of sequence controls for discrete event processes on the basis of suitable control path models . In: Automation technology, Munich . Vol. 53, H. 3, 2005, pp. 140-149.
• A method for the process model-based design of control algorithms for parallel discrete-event processes . In: Automation technology, Munich . Vol. 55, H. 11, 2007, pp. 580-593.
• Control of discrete event processes. New methods for process description and design of control algorithms. Springer Vieweg Verlag, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-01381-3 , e-book ISBN 978-3-658-01382-0 .

literature

• Heinz Töpfer : 25 years of “Otto von Guericke” Technical University in Magdeburg - 18 years of training in control engineering. measure, control, regulate, Berlin 21 (1978) H. 8, p. 422.
• Ulrich Korn : Professor Christian Döschner 65 years. In: Automation Technology, Munich, vol. 49, 2001, No. 10, p. 470.
• Karl Heinz Fasol ; Rudolf Lauber; Franz Mesch; Heinrich Rake ; Manfred Thoma ; Heinz Töpfer : Great Names and the Early Days of Control in Germany. In: Automation technology, Munich. Vol. 54, 2006, No. 9, pp. 462-472.
• Kurt Reinschke: Remembering Heinrich Kindler , first professor for control engineering at the TH Dresden . In: Automation technology, Munich, vol. 58, 2010, No. 06, pp. 345–347.
• Hans-Joachim Zander, Georg Bretthauer : Prof. Heinz Töpfer on his 80th birthday. In: Automation Technology, Munich, vol. 58, 2010, No. 7, pp. 413–415.
• Werner Kriesel : Prof. Hans-Joachim Zander on his 80th birthday. In: Automation technology, Munich. Vol. 61, H. 10, 2013, pp. 722-724.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Siegfried Pilz : Theory of switching systems. In: Eugen Philippow (Hrsg.): Taschenbuch Elektrotechnik. Volume 3, communications engineering. Verlag Technik, Berlin and Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich 1969, 1624 pp.
2. ^ Karl Heinz Fasol : Binary control technology. Springer Verlag, Berlin; Heidelberg; New York; London; Paris; Tokyo 1988, pp. 195-232, ISBN 3-540-50026-X .
3. ↑ Werner Kriesel ; Rohr, H .; Koch, A .: History and future of measurement and automation technology. VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1995, pp. 170-178, ISBN 3-18-150047-X .
4. ↑ Wolfgang Weller : Automation technology through the ages - development history of a fascinating subject. Verlag epubli GmbH Berlin, 2013, pp. 11-14, ISBN 978-3-8442-5487-7 .
5. ↑ Peter Neumann (ed.): Magdeburg's automation technology in transition - from industrial to research location. Authors: Christian Diedrich , Rolf Höltge, Ulrich Jumar , Achim Kienle, Reinhold Krampitz, Günter Müller, Peter Neumann, Konrad Pusch, Helga Rokosch, Barbara Schmidt, Ulrich Schmucker, Gerhard Unger, Günter Wolf. Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg ; Institute for Automation and Communication Magdeburg (ifak), Magdeburg 2018, production: Grafisches Centrum Cuno GmbH & Co. KG, Calbe (Saale), ISBN 978-3-944722-75-7 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Hans-Joachim Zander in the catalog of the German National Library