Automation Memes

Control engineers having a field day with this one! The left shooter is decked out with fancy high-tech gear representing complex control algorithms like Model Predictive Control (MPC), Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR), H-infinity synthesis, and all those neural network goodies. Meanwhile, the right shooter with just a basic pistol represents PID Control - that simple, reliable workhorse that's been keeping our thermostats, drones, and industrial processes running since the 1920s. Despite all our fancy mathematical advancements, sometimes the simple PID controller (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) still gets the job done just as well! It's like bringing a calculator to a math competition while everyone else lugs in supercomputers. Engineering's greatest flex is knowing when simple is better than sophisticated!

The engineering discipline hierarchy strikes again! Mechatronics engineers flexing their multidisciplinary muscles (literally) among industrial robots. These folks wake up with the supreme confidence that comes from mastering mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering all at once. They're basically the triathletes of engineering—except instead of swimming, biking, and running, they're designing servo motors, programming PLCs, and optimizing robotic arms while the rest of us mere engineering mortals specialize in just one field. The engineering superiority complex is practically a required course in the curriculum.

Control theory professors: "You need complex mathematical proofs, robust H-infinity methods, and optimal control theory to handle nonlinear systems!" Industry engineers: "Haha PID controller go brrr." The dirty secret of engineering is that while academics write papers about sophisticated control algorithms, 98% of real-world industrial loops are controlled by the same basic PID controllers invented in 1922. Why solve for optimal actuation when you can just tweak three parameters until the machine stops exploding?