Technical cybernetics

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The Technical Cybernetics is an interdisciplinary engineering science at the interface to the system and the natural sciences , which with the modeling , simulation involved and regulation of technical systems. It represents a branch of cybernetics and is largely based on methods of mathematical systems theory and control engineering . Typical applications and research areas of technical cybernetics include the modeling and control of chemical processes, the design of flight simulators and autopilots, and the development of driver assistance systems for the automotive sector, such as the electronic stability program (ESP) and the anti-lock braking system (ABS) .

Origins and classification

The term “cybernetics” was first introduced in 1947 by the US mathematician Norbert Wiener . Wiener had recognized that in relation to the interaction with the environment and the related regulation, it is often the same principles according to which technical, sociological or economic systems as well as living organisms function. Based on the Greek κυβερνήτης (“helmsman”), Wiener coined the term “cybernetics” for this knowledge and the science associated with it. The Chinese scientist HS Tsien took up Wiener's ideas and in 1954, as part of his work in aerospace research, introduced the term "Engineering Cybernetics", on which today's German name is based.

Since its inception, technical cybernetics has steadily gained in relevance in the course of the rapid technical development of the last decades and the associated increasing complexity of the systems examined and has increasingly established itself as an independent scientific discipline. The conceptual development ran largely parallel to that of mathematical systems theory and control engineering. Since the early 1990s in particular, more powerful hardware and software components have increasingly made it possible to simulate and control more complex processes as well as the use of technical cybernetics methods in a large number of technical applications and series products.

The basics of technical cybernetics in the form of control engineering are now a central component of many engineering disciplines. However, there are also some independent, specialized research institutions and courses of study, see below. Technical cybernetics is closely related to the research area of ​​mechatronics, but is differentiated from it, among other things, by the lack of commitment to electromechanical applications and by a more general system-theoretical perspective with a focus on system-dynamic and control-related issues.

Applications and related disciplines

Due to its systems science approach and interdisciplinary orientation, technical cybernetics is used in many areas, including: a .:

Education

The study of technical cybernetics includes, in addition to well-founded basics in the classic engineering disciplines, such as technical mechanics, electrical engineering or thermodynamics, above all, in-depth knowledge in the field of mathematical system theory, system dynamics and control engineering. The engineering course Technical Cybernetics , which is part of the mechanical engineering department, has existed at the University of Stuttgart since 1971. The course was designed by Ernst Dieter Gilles at the time . Since it was founded, the number of new students in Stuttgart has increased from around 25 to around 100. As an honorary professor at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Gilles also initiated the system technology and technical cybernetics course in 2000 . Since 2010 there has also been a technical cybernetics and systems theory course at the TU Ilmenau . Methodologically, this ties in with the tradition of the technical cybernetics department of the Technical and Biomedical Cybernetics section of the TU Ilmenau, which was established in 1968 . At the NTNU in Trondheim , the Institutt for teknisk kybernetikk offers both an Engineering Cybernetics course and a doctoral program of the same name. The University of Pilsen and CTU Prague also offer courses in Cybernetics and Control Engineering and Cybernetics and Robotics . At the University of Palermo there has been a Bachelor in Ingegneria cibernetica since 2015 .

See also

literature

  • Norbert Wiener: Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. , Hermann & Cie, Paris, 1984, 2nd edition: MIT Press, Cambridge (MA), 1961, ISBN 978-0-262-73009-9 . German translation: Cybernetics. Regulation and communication in living beings and in machines. , rororo 1968 and Econ Verlag 1992
  • Hsue Shen Tsien: Engineering Cybernetics. , McGraw-Hill, New York, 1954
  • Horst Völz : That is information. Shaker Verlag, Aachen 2017. ISBN 978-3-8440-5587-0 .

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