Capability ladder · step 02 · Robotics
Control theory,
with consequences.
- Entry point
- Quoted
- Audience
- Technical institutes · engineering undergraduate
- Capabilities
- Differential-drive rover · Manipulator arm · Autonomy under comms windows · Energy budgeting
01What it teaches
Make it act on the world.
- 01Closed-loop control with real actuator limits
- 02Energy budgeting for an autonomous traverse
- 03Operating inside a communications window, not around it
- 04Fault handling when there is no operator in the loop
02Specification
What is actually in it.
Rover platform
- Drive
- Differential, encoder feedback
- Compute
- Linux SBC with real-time control loop
- Sensing
- IMU, wheel odometry, ranging, camera
- Power
- Instrumented battery with logged consumption
- Comms
- Windowed link, schedulable to a real pass
What it integrates with
- EduSat
- Traverse planned around real satellite pass windows
- Ground segment
- Shared scheduling and telemetry decode
- Curriculum
- Same assessment standard as steps 01 and 03
- Assessment
- Instructor-graded lab report against a rubric
03Open · no account required
Reaction-wheel attitude control
The same PID loop a student tunes on the rover, moved onto a spacecraft. Tune it on the step response and it looks finished in under a minute. Then read the second chart, which runs the identical controller for a full orbit and shows the wheel filling with the momentum it absorbed while rejecting disturbance. A reaction wheel has nowhere to put that momentum, and when it is full the controller has no authority at all.
Where this sits
See what a programme includesEvery rung shares one curriculum spine and one assessment standard, so a department can start small and grow without re-teaching itself.
Next
Test the claims before you talk to us.
Three simulators run in the browser with no account and no form. They are the same computations that run inside the curriculum — if the arithmetic does not hold up, you will find out in ten minutes rather than after a purchase order.
Tier 0 is open · Tier 1 unlocks on a verified institutional email