Publication date: 
2017/09/04
On 30 August, students from the Department of Control Engineering of the CTU Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Ing. Jiří Zemánek and Ing. Martin Gurtner received award for the best video popularizing automated management in the IEEE CSS Video Clip Contest 2017 competition organized by the IEEE International Engineering Organization. The clip they created demonstrates the complex concepts of automatic control to a wider audience with a simple example of a ball and a hoop.

Video shows a simple ball on a hoop as model to explain advanced algorithms used to control rocket re-entry from space or to control walking robots. In the video, the control system rotates the hoop so that the ball circles around it and stop. Unlike conventional control systems such as cruise control in the car or automatic room temperature control, the course of the whole process must be calculated and optimized in simulations on a mathematical model. On the real model, the control system is then only trying to achieve similar behavior as it learned in the simulations.

This seemingly simple physical system has many uses. The movement of the ball in the hoop is very similar to real processes, such as the movement of liquid in rocket tanks. Fueling has led to the collapse of one of SpaceX's Falcon 1 rockets. The entire video can be seen at this address and, in addition to the above mentioned price, it has also been greatly appreciated at the summer IFAC World Congress.