Ball and Beam Inventor and Origin Story thoughts
As a mechanical engineering professor for over 25-years, I lean "old school". So, my students suggested I reach out to the Reddit community. Here's my first post.
I first heard of the ball-and-beam (BNB) platform in my controls courses 40-years ago. However, I never heard of its origin and/or who invented it. My former controls professors and robotics colleagues don't know either. I also pinged the founder/owner of Quanser (a professional colleague). He didn't know either.
Literature review seem to point to Prof. Karl Astrom who's now over 90-years old. I pinged his department chair at the Lund Institute a few years ago. He didn't know either and said (understandably) that Prof. Astrom doesn't respond to email.
Without references, I use the following "origin" story to help motivate my students - the Apollo Moon Landing. The 1950s demanded control engineers. Without friction, the lander's dynamics is a double integrator - which is what the classic BNB is. So, the BNB served as a table-top trainer; designs like lead compensation and tools root locus and/or Bode plots, are needed to ensure minimum overshoot (not crash into the Moon) and settling time (not run out of fuel). As control theory grew, designs like pole placement, LQR, etc provided alternatives.
Any thoughts and references to the BNB for this first time Reddit poster?