ME 581: Digital Control
Digital Control was the first and only graduate level course I took as an undergraduate. It falls under the category of Mechatronics, but I took an extra Mechatronics course, so I am applying it instead toward graduate school next year.
Computers do not think like we do. They think in discrete numbers, not in continuous numbers. For example, most car speedometers are analog, which means they can be any value along a continuous spectrum. However, a computer can only handle discrete values, so if you want a good distribution, you need to take a bunch of points. Usually, if you split each section into enough pieces you can get accuracy that is just as good, or nearly so. In the diagram at left, you can see the smooth line is analog, or continuous, while the jagged line is digital, or discrete.
I will be entering the graduate school in Mechanical Engineering at UW this fall, and it will be nice to already have this class under my belt. Below is one of the homework assignments that I completed for this class.
Computers do not think like we do. They think in discrete numbers, not in continuous numbers. For example, most car speedometers are analog, which means they can be any value along a continuous spectrum. However, a computer can only handle discrete values, so if you want a good distribution, you need to take a bunch of points. Usually, if you split each section into enough pieces you can get accuracy that is just as good, or nearly so. In the diagram at left, you can see the smooth line is analog, or continuous, while the jagged line is digital, or discrete.
I will be entering the graduate school in Mechanical Engineering at UW this fall, and it will be nice to already have this class under my belt. Below is one of the homework assignments that I completed for this class.