Career in Control Systems   Control systems are another area of electrical engineering where circuit analysis is used. A control system is designed to regulate the behavior of one or more variables in some desired manner. Control systems play major roles in our everyday life. Household appliances such as heating and air-conditioning systems, switch-controlled thermostats, washers and dryers, cruise controllers in automobiles, elevators, traffic lights, manufacturing plants, navigation systems—all utilize control systems. In the aerospace field, precision guidance of space probes, the wide range of operational modes of the space shuttle, and the ability to maneuver space vehicles remotely from earth all require knowledge of control systems. In the manufacturing sector, repetitive production line operations are increasingly performed by robots, which are programmable control systems designed to operate for many hours without fatigue.

Control engineering integrates circuit theory and communication theory. It is not limited to any specific engineering discipline but may involve environmental, chemical, aeronautical, mechanical, civil, and electrical engineering. For example, a typical task for a control system engineer might be to design a speed regulator for a disk drive head.

A thorough understanding of control systems techniques is essential to the electrical engineer and is of great value for designing control systems to perform the desired task.