Haptic Interaction for Hands-On Learning in Systems
Dynamics and Controls
R. B. Gillespie, and A. M. Okamura
Control Systems Magazine, accepted for publication
Every student entering the control engineering classroom brings years of
experience in the hands-on practice of controls, earned through the control of
the motions and actions of his or her own body and the control of objects in the
environment. Much of this control experience has been subjected to conscious
observation and experimentation, yet this expertise is very seldom leveraged
when teaching control theory in the classroom. Certainly, tying theory to
existing practical knowledge is a process containing many potential pitfalls.
But if concepts in control theory can be correctly and appropriately tied to
personal experience and intuition in human motor control, then our e®ectiveness
as control educators could be signi¯cantly increased. By harnessing this
intuition, the mathematical symbols manipulated on paper might be integrated
with intuitive, long-lasting memory and used to develop good engineering
judgement.