Week 8 Control Evidence Log

Your Week 8 log is a time-response review.

Choose one supplied feedback trace and show how target, measurement, error, command, and physical response interact over time.

Control-loop strip

Draw or write the loop:

target → measured/estimated state → error → controller → actuator → aircraft → new measurement

Under each stage, add the actual quantity from your selected example.

Response-shape evidence

Record:

• target value;
• first target crossing;
• maximum overshoot;
• whether oscillation grows or decays;
• approximate settling behavior;
• any visible steady offset.

Use the trace, not adjectives like “pretty stable.”

Limit check

Identify one constraint that shaped the response:

• actuator saturation;
• limited thrust margin;
• measurement noise;
• sensor or filter delay;
• deadband;
• target that exceeds the available system authority.

Explain how that limit changes what the controller can accomplish.

Competing explanations

Write your two strongest hypotheses for the observed response and one simulation test that would separate them.

Use this format:

If hypothesis A is correct, changing ___ should cause ___. If hypothesis B is correct, we would instead expect ___.

One misconception you can now reject

Choose one:

• “Autopilot knows what the drone should do.”
• “More gain always makes control better.”
• “If the trace reaches the target, the controller is good.”
• “Oscillation always means the same fault.”

Correct it using evidence from the week.

Bridge to mission software

Complete this sentence:

A feedback controller can hold a target, but mission software still has to decide...

Your answer should mention where the target comes from, what happens when conditions change, or which failsafe should take control.

Exit standard

A strong log explains not only the final value, but the path the system took to get there and which physical, measurement, or control limit shaped that path.