Sept. 25, 2014
The symbiosis of software with computer, sensors and actuators creates a new kind of physical engineering system.
Robots used in space exploration and GPS – on the ground, GPS is just a « giant Kalman filter » – are great examples. But the future potential is difficult to estimate.
One view – mine – is that the future depends on mathematics, on system theory broadly interpreted.
After recalling, very briefly, the successes and limitations of linear systems theory, I shall outline a broad pathway to the future, following and greatly expanding ideas from classical network « synthesis » (Foster, Cauer, Bode, Bott&Duffin), algebraic invariant theory (Hilbert), identification of contents of black boxes, more…
