My latest curiosity has me researching old mechanical devices, clockworks and such. Old mechanical computers; the Antikythera mechanism and old fire control computers. Check this out for a taste of what I'm talking about:
I want to see a mechanical implementation of PID, using the above methods (gears, shafts, cams, etc.) but I can't find much. I am aware of early pneumatic PID controllers and have posted about them before. That's not really what I'm after. I am aware of Sperry's PID controller for ships, but can't seem to find any specific information on it.
Reading up on the history of PID, I begin to wonder if by the time PID was an understood science (as opposed to an intuited one) maybe we were past the time of mechanical computing. So maybe what I want to see doesn't exist. But I thought I'd ask.
I want to see a mechanical implementation of PID, using the above methods (gears, shafts, cams, etc.) but I can't find much. I am aware of early pneumatic PID controllers and have posted about them before. That's not really what I'm after. I am aware of Sperry's PID controller for ships, but can't seem to find any specific information on it.
Reading up on the history of PID, I begin to wonder if by the time PID was an understood science (as opposed to an intuited one) maybe we were past the time of mechanical computing. So maybe what I want to see doesn't exist. But I thought I'd ask.