Aerobrakes — Lesson 3: Control Theory Primer

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Before the team writes a single line of control-algorithm code, they need real intuition for what these algorithms actually do — otherwise the comparison work in Lessons 5–7 is just copying formulas without understanding.

Objective

students have working intuition for bang-bang, PID, and responsive control before writing any code.

Session Activities

Start with physical analogies, not symbols: a thermostat is a bang-bang controller (fully on or fully off, nothing in between), a car's cruise control is closer to a PID controller (continuously adjusting based on how far off target you are, how long you've been off, and how fast the error is changing). Get the concepts across in plain language before any equations appear.

Then have students predict, on paper, how each type of controller would respond to a noisy sensor reading — before running any simulation to check. Getting the prediction wrong is fine and expected; the point is building an intuition to test against, not being right on the first try.

Checkpoint

Each student can explain overshoot, settling time, and steady-state error unaided — these three terms come up constantly for the rest of Phase 1, and this is the last chance to nail them down before the real implementation work starts.

Maps to milestone P1-M3B. This lesson was added to the course after a review identified a gap: the algorithm comparison work in Lessons 5–7 assumes control-theory intuition that nothing upstream in the original plan actually built.