John Baez

Mathematical Physics Seminar, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

February 5, 2014

Categories in Control

Control theory is the branch of classical mechanics that deals with 'open systems': physical systems like machines, where the time evolution depends on parameters that can be changed in a time-dependent way by an external agent. We can take small open systems and glue them together to form larger ones. This means that category theory is relevant: we can treat open systems as 'morphisms', and glue them together by composing or tensoring them. Here we describe some small steps toward a category-theoretic approach to control theory.

You can see the slides here. For related material including a video of a talk I gave on control theory, try:


© 2014 John Baez
baez@math.removethis.ucr.andthis.edu

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