工程控制论(engineering cybernetics)研究的不仅仅是控制,更是信息与控制的交叉. 信息与控制密切相关,包括信息的选择和提取,等等. 从信息的角度思考控制可以开拓思路,重新梳理``反馈"和``扰动"等工程控制的基本概念,深刻理解前人的发明创造和学术思想. 韩京清先生二十七年前在本刊开创性地提出,在控制器的设计中用局部的过程信息取代全局的模型信息,从而解除控制理论中对模型的依赖,为控制理论的发展开辟了新的方向. 工程实践表明,信息的选择和品质是关键问题,特别是扰动信息. 以自抗扰控制为代表的二元设计,通过扰动概念的拓展和被控对象的去扰,为通用工业控制器的设计和标准化提供了新的路径,也为基于信息的工程控制论的发展提供了借鉴. 从古代的指南车到现代的《工程控制论》和《自抗扰控制技术》,从人文到科技,从东方到西方,一个以信息为主线、以抗扰为核心的控制思想,不断地启发和鼓励我们: 温故知新, 自强不息.

Engineering cybernetics is not just about control, but more so about the interplay between information and control. Our understanding of the basic concepts such as feedback and disturbance deepens with a critical reflection on how critical information is recognized and obtained in the context of control design, so does our understanding of the past inventions and design principles. Prof. Jingqing Han, a pioneer, initiated the debate with an article in this journal 27 years ago. Sharing deep concerns regarding the premise on the accurate mathematical model in control theory with Prof. H.S. Tsien, who raised the problem of disturbance and uncertainties in control, Prof. Han made the crucial leap from the model-based design to the information-based design. The ensuing dualistic paradigm of controller-rejector design, with active disturbance rejection control as but one embodiment, provides both a framework and a new technological basis for the renewal and standardization of general purpose industrial control technologies, as well as a path back to the original vision of engineering cybernetics from Prof. Tsien. From the south-pointing chariot\ to engineering cybernetics, from PID to active disturbance rejection control, from humanity to science and technology, from east to west, an information-centric conceptualization of control has persisted over centuries and is coming to fruition.