Charting the future of automatic control
October 2014
News
Two thousand of the world’s foremost engineers, roboticists and mathematicians recently met in Cape Town to share research and take a look into the future of their exciting field – automatic control – at the World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC). In 2011, Professor Ian Craig of the University of Pretoria became President of IFAC, a prestigious international position which he holds to this day.
Professor Ian Craig.
The conference theme was ‘Promoting automatic control for the benefit of humankind’. Topics ranged from how robot technology is being used in the Fukushima nuclear plant clean-up, to how control technology can make electricity grids smart and enterprises more intelligent, through to innovative ways in which to teach tomorrow’s engineers and scientists. The event ended on a high note with a demonstration of automatically controlled quadrocopters in autonomous flight.
“Most of us interact with automatic control systems and sensors every day. Lesser known are the pioneering control technologies used in, for example, the autonomous vehicles that mine at extreme depths to save human miners from working under almost unbearable conditions; or the revolutionary exoskeleton suits that enable workers to lift heavy machinery without feeling its weight to reduce risk of injury, while increasing productivity,” says Craig.
“IFAQ 2014 will quicken the pace of innovation in automatic control and help profile South Africa as a contributor to the field. Equally important is that the congress sparks the interest of SA’s future engineers, mathematicians and roboticists. The real dividend will be the encouragement of South African youth to consider careers in engineering, mathematics, science and robotics as these are some of the skills our country needs most,” he concludes.
For more information contact Ian Craig, University of Pretoria, +27 (0)12 420 2172, ian.craig@up.ac.za, www.ifac2014.org
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