Control Theory is the Mathematics of Sustainability
What is sustainability if not achieving a steady state which
balances the use of resources with the growth of human needs? This is the regulator problem in control systems.
A key to sustainability is an optimal use of resources by
regulating the control variables at our disposal to achieve a desirable
environmental objective. This is the optimal control problem.
It has been the goal of the advocates of sustainable
practices to make people aware of the consequences of their actions. In other words, we need to understand the input/output behavior of
our ecosystem.
This, of course, requires understanding how it all works and
providing suitable models for it. This
is the realization problem in control
theory.