MEEN 364 - Dynamic Systems and Controls

I created this page while I was a teaching assistant at Texas A&M for MEEN 364, Dynamic Systems and Controls. It has been preserved in its original form.

I have setup this page to provide helpful resources to anyone who is interested, and I will occassionally add more as I come across them. None of these links are required reading, but sometimes seeing the material presented in a different format can help with understanding. These are some of the videos, websites, and PDFs that helped me learn dynamic systems and controls. Enjoy!

Recitation Notes

• Recitation 01 - 05 September 2016
• Recitation 03 - 19 September 2016
• Exam Review (Recitation 05) - 3 October 2016
• Recitation 07 - 26 October 2016
• Recitation 09 - 09 December 2016

Supplemental Material

Here are some supplemental resources which support MEEN 364. Each bulleted item contains a link which will take you to an external page.

Introductory Control Systems

• An excellent YouTube series on control theory by controls engineer/legend Brian Douglas. If you are struggling with any class concepts, there is a good chance they are covered on Brian’s channel. The 46 videos in this playlist average about 12 minutes a video and over 100,000 views each.
• MATLAB and Simulink based controls tutorials developed by professors at the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon. Covers six dynamic systems through the modeling, analysis, and controller design phase.
• MathWorks Control System Toolbox documentation. One of the reasons MATLAB is preferred for control system design (especially in education) is the quality of the documentation and examples on the MathWorks website.

MATLAB/Simulink

• This .m file sets the graphics defaults for MATLAB. It will execute on start-up if placed in the MATLAB path (type ‘path’ into MATLAB to list the search path).
• How to draw ODEs in Simulink, by Guy Rouleau from MathWorks.

Bode Diagrams

• A series of videos on understanding Bode plots by MathWorks engineer Carlos Osorio. Carlos discusses some real world systems and their frequency response characteristics using Bode diagrams. Four parts, 26 minutes total.
• Another series of Bode plot videos by MathWorks engineer Carlos Osorio. Carlos discusses using Bode plots to design lead/lag controllers. Very useful for understanding basic controller structure. Five parts, 33 minutes total. Other

Controls Resources

These are meant to inform and inspire, if you’re interested in the field of controls engineering.

• Latest robotics articles from the MIT Technology Review.
• The Control Engineering Quora page has some good Q&As about what controls engineers do now, and the future of the industry.
• Robotics Stack Exhange. Create a profile and ask questions, you’ll be surprised by the quality and quantity of the answers you will get.