Cascade Control of Bicycles

So, some of the activities that I currently dabble in other than making bad jokes, is bike riding and control systems.

When I ride on the sidewalk along Red Bluff, I have been thinking about whether to look up or look down. If I look down, I can ride fairly straight. If I look up, I don't drive as straight I am all over the road, but I can better see and avoid pedestrians, other bikers, and fire hydrants.

Enter cascade control. One strategy for control is called cascade control. This adds another stage to the feedback control. So, normally, I would be looking up and steering (badly). In the cascade scenario, I would look up occasionally to watch out for obstacles and to plot a course. I would look down to steer along that course.

Cascade controls gives the best of both worlds. I have the safety of looking up (even if it is only occasionally due to human limitations) and the relatively straight. Looking down, I can keep straight.

Somehow, when I was composing this on the bike, it seemed to be a better blog post.