New Area of Control Research

    Sept. 23, 2008

    [img_assist|nid=2464|title=Belas cats|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=200|height=149]Process control legend and long-time Control columnist Bela Liptak has emailed us over the weekend that he's engaged in a new area of research--controlling cats. Over the weekend, he and his wife acquired three kittens from the same litter and are now learning first-hand the reality behind that phrase, "herding cats." Hopefully, he can use some of his experience with applying herding algorithms to things like dampers in office buildings...

    [img_assist|nid=2464|title=Belas cats|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=200|height=149]Process control legend and long-time Control columnist Bela Liptak has emailed us over the weekend that he's engaged in a new area of research--controlling cats. Over the weekend, he and his wife acquired three kittens from the same litter and are now learning first-hand the reality behind that phrase, "herding cats." Hopefully, he can use some of his experience with applying herding algorithms to things like dampers in office buildings...

    The cat owners here have been contributing some background material for his research, which is progressing just about as one might expect: "As to controlling them, I tried feedback, feed-forward, but the only algorithm that works seems to be on-off control of the office door," Bela tells us.

    But we have faith in Bela. If anyone can solve the cat control problem, he can.  

    The subjects of this experiment have not been named yet. Bela says that part of the project has been turned over to his grandchildren. We'll keep you posted as the research continues.

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