Examples of Analog Computing

In the following you can find some examples of actual analog computations ranging from simple lissajou figures and the like to more complex problems like an orbital rendezvous simulation or a two mass car suspension system simulation.

	A simple hybrid controller for electronic analog computers.
	A simple two-dimensional simulation of a spaceship.
	Simulating a simple mass-spring-damper system on a Telefunken RA 770.
	The first part of a two part video demonstrating the simulation of a car-suspendion system on an analog computer.
	The second part of the video showing the car-suspension-system-simulation.
	Simple simulation of a moon-landing using a Telefunken RA 742 analog computer with DEX 102 digital extension.
	A simple squash simulation for one player - Squash for One.
	My first attempt on building an analog flight simulator - a simple longitudinal aircraft simulation.
	A couple of days ago I setup a simple program to generate the well known Lorenz attractor.
	On December 1st, 2007, I finished a more complex program on the Telefunken RA 770 analog computer to display a so called Joukowski airofoil with lines of airflow around this profile. The first video clip (about 8 MB!) shows a single line of airflow around this airofoil under manual control while the second video clip (about 2 MB) shows the automatic generation of a family of 16 curves using the very same program which is described in more detail here.
	This video shows the actual implementation of the Joukowski airfoil shown above.
	Have you ever wondered how a rendezvous in space is performed when two space craft shall be coupled together like the CM/LEM or a Space Shuttle and the ISS etc.? If so, you might want to have a look at a simple orbital rendezvous simulation I programmed this weekend (12/13-JAN-2008).
	A couple of days ago I reimplemented the vehicle simulation listed below on my EAI 580 analog computer using no special external equipment like the four channel oscilloscope multiplexer, etc. This was possible since the EAI 580 features quite a few electronic analog switches which can be employed to implement a display multiplexer on the computer itself. This new simulation is more realistic than the old one below and shows the car frame, the wheels and the road itself in motion. Read more about this simulation here.
	Simulating a (simplified) car suspension system - this page contains links to three AVI-files showing the overall setup of a complex simulation run on an analog computer as well as showing the real time simulation output.
	Last weekend I developed a small analog computer program to display rotating three dimensional figures on an oscilloscope screen - this program together with a short movie of a rotating spiral can be found here.
	Programming a bouncing ball in a box - this link leads to a page showing the overall program, setup and an AVI-file showing the bouncing ball. There also is a set of slides describing the simulation in detail.
	On September 22nd, 2007, my friend Dr. Karina Schreiber (a mathematician, too) came for a visit and we had lots of fun creating some artwork using an analog computer. Some of the pictures we created can be seen here.
	On July 19th, 2008, my friend Dr. Matthias Koch came with a mathematical question to my birthday party. We solved the problem first analytical and on the following day I did a small analog simulation to confirm our findings. Read more here.
	Some time ago a friend from the computer history museum asked me about an idea for an interactive analog computer exhibition - some time later another friend from another museum approached me with quite the same idea so I built a very simple simulator for a bouncing ball which is described in the following.

10-AUG-2016, ulmann@analogmuseum.org

BACK