A quick look at Control Theory and Engineering

The first feedback mechanisms, according to Mayr (1970), date back to the 3rd century B.C. and were employed in water clocks to make time measurement more precise. Later, they played a fundamental role in the operation of Watt’s steam engine, specifically in the centrifugal governor (Bissell, 2009). Control theory, as it is known today in the scientific community, was born from the mathematization of the stability problem of the centrifugal governor carried out by Maxwell (1868). This was the first time that the feedback problem of a machine was addressed theoretically.

Although control theory originated in a specific area of engineering, it has found applications in other branches of knowledge. Probably the most emblematic area has been cybernetics, which highlights the fact that feedback mechanisms are not exclusive to machines, but also exist in living beings—by engineering design in the former, and by the evolution of life itself in the latter. Yet these mechanisms are not only present in machines, processes, and the physiology of living beings. They can also be found in economic, social, and chemical systems, to name just a few.

Framed within diverse areas of technological development and scientific knowledge, the elements of control theory serve as tools for technological design and for predicting phenomena. Some problems of relevance in control theory include the following:


Mayr, O. (1970). The origins of feedback control. Scientific American, 223(4), 110-119.
Bissell, C. (2009). A history of automatic control. In Springer handbook of automation (pp. 53-69). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Maxwell, J. C. (1868). I. On governors. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, (16), 270-283.