Vertrouwen hebben is goed, in controle zijn is beter! Confidence is
good, but to be in control is better! La confianza está bien, ¡pero el
control es mejor...! La información suele ser buena, ¡la realimentación
es esencial! Information is important but feedback is essential!
Informatie is belangrijk, maar feedback is essentieel! Our journey to
write a general introduction to control and feedback started with the
realisation that in our chosen field of study the proponents have taken
little time to project the main ideas outside the community of the
initiated. We are constantly - minded of the fact that there is no
general awareness of control engineering, or c- trol technology, despite
its ubiquity when we try to introduce ourselves as control engineers.
Invariably this leads to A what engineer? response. We suspect that most
control engineers do not even try to introduce themselves as such. It
certainly is a poor communication starter. Colleagues, friends,
collaborators often ask rather natural questions like So, what do you
study in control? Is there a non-specialist introduction to the field?
Can I read something to get a feel about this field of systems theory?
What questions do you try to answer? What are the key results? In reply
we can point to a wealth of technical lite- ture, rooted in mathematics,
quite acceptable to some engineers or mathematics gra- ates, but rather
too formidable a hurdle for most.
