Hendrik Wade Bode
Encyclopedia
Hendrik Wade Bode (24 December 1905 – 21 June 1982) was an American engineer
, researcher
, inventor, author and scientist], of Dutch ancestry. As a pioneer of modern control theory
and electronic
telecommunications he revolutionized both the content and methodology of his chosen fields of research.
He made important contributions to the design, guidance and control of anti-aircraft systems during World War II and continuing post-WWII during the Cold War
with the design and control of missiles and anti-ballistic missile
s.
In addition, his research impacted many other engineering disciplines and laid the foundation for a diverse array of modern innovations such as computers, robot
s and mobile phones among others.
Bode was one of the great engineering philosophers of his era. Long respected in academic circles worldwide, he is also widely known to modern engineering students mainly for developing the asymptotic
magnitude and phase
plot that bears his name, the Bode plot
.
His research contributions in particular were not only multidimensional but far reaching as well, extending as far as the U.S. space program
.
. His father was a professor of education, and a faculty
member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
by the time young Hendrik was ready for elementary school. He entered Leal Elementary School
and rapidly advanced through the Urbana school system to graduate from high school
at the age of 14.
Immediately after graduation from high school he applied for admission to the University of Illinois but was denied because of his age. Decades later, in 1977, the same University would grant him an Honorary Sc.D. Degree.
He eventually applied and was accepted at Ohio State University
, where his father also taught, and he received his B.A.
degree
in 1924, at age 19, and his M.A.
Degree in 1926, both in Mathematics. After receiving his M.A. he remained at his alma mater
, working as a teaching assistant
, for an additional year.
he was promptly hired by Bell Labs
in New York City, where he began his career as designer of electronic filters and equalizers. Subsequently, in 1929, he was assigned to the Mathematical Research Group, where he excelled in research related to electronic networks theory and its application to telecommunications. Sponsored by Bell Laboratories he reentered graduate school, this time at Columbia University
, and he successfully completed his Ph.D.
in physics
in 1935.
In 1938, he developed his asymptotic phase and magnitude plots
. His work on Automatic (Feedback
) Control Systems introduced innovative methods to the study of system stability that enabled engineers to investigate time domain
stability
using the frequency domain
concepts of gain and phase margin
, the study of which was aided by his now famous plots.
In essence, his method made stability transparent to both the time and frequency domains and, furthermore, his frequency domain-based analysis was much faster and simpler than the traditional time-domain-based method. This provided engineers with a fast and intuitive stability analysis and system design tool that is as popular today as it was groundbreaking then.
, Bode turned his sights on the military
applications of his Control Systems research, a change of direction that would last in varying degree to the end of his career. He came to the service of his country by working on the Director Project at Bell Labs (funded by National Defense Research Committee
(NDRC) Section D-2), developing automatic anti-aircraft control systems, whereby radar
information was used to provide data about the location of the enemy aircraft, which was then fed back to the anti-aircraft artillery servomechanism
s enabling automatic, radar-augmented enemy aircraft ballistic
tracking, in other words, automatic shooting down of enemy aircraft with the help of radar. The servomotors used were both electrically and hydraulically powered, the latter being used mainly for positioning the heavy anti-aircraft guns.
T-10, a form of electrical computer so named because it was used to direct the positioning of the gun with respect to the airborne target. It also calculated the target average velocity based on the location information provided by the radar and predicted the future target location based on its assumed flightpath equation, usually a linear function of time. This system functioned as an early version of the modern Anti-ballistic missile defence model. Statistical analysis was also employed to aid in the computation of the exact position of the enemy aircraft and to smooth the data acquired from the target due to signal fluctuations and noise effects.
data communications, electrical computers, statistics principles and feedback control systems theory. He showed his dry sense of humour
by calling this multidisciplinary linkage a shotgun marriage, referring to the antiaircraft artillery origins of his historic invention.
weapon. Its function required to process data that was wirelessly transmitted to its sensors and make a decision based on the data received using its onboard computer about its output defined as its angular position and the timing of its firing mechanism. In this model we can see all the elements of later concepts such as data processing
, automation
, artificial intelligence
, cybernetics
, robotics
etc.
NDRC, the funding agency of this project, was operating under the aegis
of the Office of Scientific Research and Development
(OSRD).
His NDRC-funded research at Bell Labs under the section D-2 (Control Systems section) contract eventually led to other important developments in related fields and laid the cornerstone for many present-day inventions. In the field of control theory
, for example, it aided in the further development of servomechanism design and control, a crucial component of modern robotics
. The development of Wireless Data Communications theory by Bode led to later inventions such as mobile phones and wireless networking.
The reason for the new project was that Director T-10 encountered difficulties in calculating the target velocity by differentiating the target position. Due to discontinuities, variations and noise in the radar signal, the position derivative
s sometimes fluctuated wildly and this caused erratic motion in the servomechanisms of the gun because their control signal was based on the value of the derivatives. This could be mitigated by smoothing or averaging out the data but this caused delays in the feedback loop that enabled the target to escape. As well, the algorithms of Director T-10 required a number of transformations from cartesian
(rectangular) to polar coordinates and back to Cartesian, a process that introduced additional tracking errors
.
Bode designed the velocity
computing networks of Director T-15 by applying a finite difference method
instead of differentiation
. Under this scheme the target positional coordinates were stored in a mechanical memory, usually a potentiometer
or a cam
. The velocity was then calculated by taking the difference between the coordinates of the current position and the coordinates of the previous reading that were stored in memory and dividing by the difference of their respective times. This method was more robust than the differentiation method and it also smoothed out signal disturbances since the finite time-step size was less sensitive to random signal impulses
(spikes
). It also introduced for the first time an algorithm better suited to modern digital
signal processing
theory rather than to the classical Calculus
-based analog signal processing
approach that was followed then. Not coincidentally it is an integral part of modern digital control theory and digital signal processing and it is known as the backward difference algorithm. In addition the Director T-15 operated only in rectangular coordinates thus eliminating coordinate transformation-based errors. These design innovations paid performance dividends and the Director T-15 was twice as accurate as its predecessor and it converged on a target twice as fast.
The fire control algorithm
implementation of his artillery design research and his extensive work with feedback amplifiers advanced the state of the art in computational methods and led to the eventual development of the electronic analog computer
, the operational amplifier
based alternative of today's digital computers.
Inventions such as these, ironically, given their military research origins, have had a profound and lasting impact in the civilian
domain and have forever altered its landscape
.
, Italy where it helped down over one hundred enemy aircraft. On D-day
thirty nine units were deployed in Normandy
to protect the allied
invading force against Hitler's Luftwaffe
.
produced a robot of their own; the V-1 flying bomb
, an automatically guided bomb and widely considered a precursor of the Cruise missile
. Its flight specifications almost perfectly suited the target design criteria of Director T-10, that of an aircraft flying straight and level at constant velocity, in other words a target nicely fitting the computing capabilities of a linear predictor model such as the Director T-10. Although the Germans did have a trick up their engineering sleeve by making the bomb fly fast and low to evade radar, a technique widely adopted even today. During the London Blitz one hundred Director T-10 assisted 90 mm automated gun units were set up in a perimeter south of London, at the special request of Winston Churchill
. The AA
units included the SCR-584 radar unit produced by the Radiation Lab at MIT and the proximity fuse
mechanism, developed by Merle Tuve
and his special Division T at NDRC, that detonated near the target using a microwave
controlled fuse called the VT or variable time fuse, enabling a larger detonation reach envelope and increasing the chances of a successful outcome. Between 18 June and 17 July 1944, 343 V-1 bombs were shot down or 10% of the total V-1 number sent by the Germans and about 20% of the total V-1 bombs shot down. From 17 July to 31 August the automated gun kills rose to 1286 V-1 rockets or 34% of the total V-1 number dispatched from Germany and 50% of the V-1 actually shot down over London. From these statistics it can be seen that the automated systems that Bode helped design had a considerable impact on crucial battles of World War II
. It can also be seen that London at the time of the Blitz
became, among other things, the original robot battle
field.
, Hendrik Bode, and Claude Shannon, formally introduced the problem of fire control as a special case of transmission, manipulation and utilization of intelligence, in other words it modeled the problem in terms of data
and signal processing
and thus heralded the coming of the information age
. Shannon, considered to be the father of information theory
, was greatly influenced by this work. It is clear that the technological convergence
of the information age was preceded by the synergy
between these scientific minds and their collaborators.
His work on electronic communications, especially on filter and equalizer design
,
continued during this time. In 1945 it culminated in the publication of his book under the title of Network Analysis and Feedback
Amplifier
Design
,, which is considered a classic in the field of electronic
telecommunications and was extensively used as a textbook for many graduate programs at various universities as well as for internal training courses at Bell Labs.
He was also the prolific author of many research papers that were published in prestigious scientific and technical journals
.
Harry S. Truman
awarded him the President's Certificate of Merit
, in recognition of his remarkable scientific contributions to the war effort and to the United States of America.
algorithms, and in the civilian domain he concentrated on modern communication theory. On the post-war military research front he worked on the Nike Zeus
missile project as part of a team with Douglas Aircraft, and later on the design of anti-ballistic missile
s.
. In 1955, he became Director of Research in the Physical Sciences, and remained there until 1958, when he was promoted again to become one of the two Vice Presidents in charge of Military Development and Systems Engineering, a position he held up to his retirement.
His applied research at Bell Labs over the years led to numerous patented inventions, some of which were registered in his name. By the time of his retirement he held a total of 25 patents in various areas of electrical and communications engineering, including signal amplifiers and artillery
control systems.
He retired from Bell Labs in October 1967, at the age of 61, ending an association that spanned more than four decades and changed the face of many of the core elements of Modern Engineering.
of Systems Engineering position at Harvard University
.
During his tenure there, he pursued research on military decision making algorithms and optimization
techniques based on stochastic processes that are considered a precursor of modern fuzzy logic
.
He also studied the effects of technology on modern society and taught courses on the same subject at Harvard's Science and Public Policy Seminar, while supervising and teaching graduate students at the same time in the division of Engineering and Applied Physics.
. Using terms easily accessible even to laymen, he analyzed and expanded on technical and philosophical aspects of systems engineering as practised at Bell Labs. He explained how seemingly different fields of Engineering were merging, guided by the necessity of the flow of information between system components that transcended previously well defined boundaries and thus he introduced us to a technological paradigm shift
. As it is clear from the title of the book as well as its contents, he became one of the early exponents of technological convergence
, infometrics and information processing
before the terms even existed.
In 1974, he retired for the second time and Harvard awarded him the honorary position of Professor Emeritus. He, nevertheless, kept his office at Harvard and continued working from there, mainly as an advisor to government on policy matters.
In 1975, ASME
awarded him the Rufus Oldenberger Award.
In 1979, he became the first recipient of the Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award
from the American Automatic Control Council
. The award is given to researchers with "distinguished career contributions to the theory or applications of automatic control
", and "it is the highest recognition of professional achievement for US control system
s engineers and scientists".
Posthumously, in 1989, the IEEE Control Systems Society
established the Hendrik W. Bode Lecture Prize in order to: recognize distinguished contributions to control systems science or engineering.
in a number of scientific and engineering societies such as the IEEE, American Physical Society
, Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics
etc. and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
, an independent American Academy, that is not part of the U.S. National Academies
.
In 1957, he was elected member to the National Academy of Sciences
, the oldest and most prestigious U.S. National Academy established at the height of the Civil War
, in 1863, by then President Abraham Lincoln
.
Being a deep thinker as well as a lucid writer he significantly contributed to three important COSPUP studies:
Basic Research and National Goals (1965), Applied Science and Technological Progress (1967) and Technology: Processes of Assessment and Choice (1969). These studies had the additional distinction of being the first ever to be prepared by the Academy for the Legislative Branch, or more specifically for the Committee on Science and Astronautics
of the U.S. House of Representatives, thus fulfilling the Academy's mandate, under its Charter, as an advisory body to the U.S. Government.
was NACA. NACA's Special Committee on Space Technology also called the Stever Committee, after its chairman Guyford Stever
, was a special steering committee that was formed with the mandate to coordinate various branches of the Federal government, private companies as well as universities within the United States with NACA's objectives and also harness their expertise in order to develop a space program.
Committee members included: Bode and Wernher von Braun the father of the US space program.
It is a historical
irony
that Hendrik Wade Bode, the man who helped develop the robot weapons that brought down the Nazi V-1 flying bomb
s over London during WWII
, was actually serving in the same committee and sitting at the same table as Wernher von Braun who worked on the development of the V-1 and was the head of the team which developed the V-2, the weapon that terrorised London.
in August 1936. Bode also enjoyed boating
. Early on in his career, while working for Bell Labs in New York, he used to sail-boat on Long Island Sound
. After World War II, he bought a surplus
landing craft (LCT
) with which he explored the upper reaches of the Chesapeake Bay
near the eastern shore of Maryland
. He also enjoyed gardening
and do-it-yourself projects. He was married to Barbara Bode (nee
Poore). Together they had two children; Dr. Katharine Bode Darlington and Mrs. Anne Hathaway Bode Aarnes.
, as an institution
, deserved a place in the Pantheon
of academia
as much as science
did. With typical engineering resourcefulness he solved the problem by helping create another academy
.
He is among the founding members and served as a regular member of the National Academy of Engineering
, that was created on December 1964, only the second U.S. National Academy in one hundred and one years since the inception of the first, and which now forms part of the United States National Academies
.
He thus helped sublimate
the age-old debate
of engineers versus scientists and elevated it into a debate between academics. This subtle, yet powerfully symbol
ic accomplishment, constitutes a compelling part of his legacy.
Hendrik Wade Bode died at the age of 76, at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts
networks, electronic filter
s, amplifiers, averaging mechanisms, data smoothing networks and artillery
computers.
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
, researcher
Researcher
A researcher is somebody who performs research, the search for knowledge or in general any systematic investigation to establish facts. Researchers can work in academic, industrial, government, or private institutions.-Examples of research institutions:...
, inventor, author and scientist], of Dutch ancestry. As a pioneer of modern control theory
Control theory
Control theory is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering and mathematics that deals with the behavior of dynamical systems. The desired output of a system is called the reference...
and electronic
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
telecommunications he revolutionized both the content and methodology of his chosen fields of research.
He made important contributions to the design, guidance and control of anti-aircraft systems during World War II and continuing post-WWII during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
with the design and control of missiles and anti-ballistic missile
Anti-ballistic missile
An anti-ballistic missile is a missile designed to counter ballistic missiles .A ballistic missile is used to deliver nuclear, chemical, biological or conventional warheads in a ballistic flight trajectory. The term "anti-ballistic missile" describes any antimissile system designed to counter...
s.
In addition, his research impacted many other engineering disciplines and laid the foundation for a diverse array of modern innovations such as computers, robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
s and mobile phones among others.
Bode was one of the great engineering philosophers of his era. Long respected in academic circles worldwide, he is also widely known to modern engineering students mainly for developing the asymptotic
Asymptotic analysis
In mathematical analysis, asymptotic analysis is a method of describing limiting behavior. The methodology has applications across science. Examples are...
magnitude and phase
Phase (waves)
Phase in waves is the fraction of a wave cycle which has elapsed relative to an arbitrary point.-Formula:The phase of an oscillation or wave refers to a sinusoidal function such as the following:...
plot that bears his name, the Bode plot
Bode plot
A Bode plot is a graph of the transfer function of a linear, time-invariant system versus frequency, plotted with a log-frequency axis, to show the system's frequency response...
.
His research contributions in particular were not only multidimensional but far reaching as well, extending as far as the U.S. space program
Human spaceflight
Human spaceflight is spaceflight with humans on the spacecraft. When a spacecraft is manned, it can be piloted directly, as opposed to machine or robotic space probes and remotely-controlled satellites....
.
Education
Bode was born in Madison, WisconsinMadison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
. His father was a professor of education, and a faculty
Faculty (university)
A faculty is a division within a university comprising one subject area, or a number of related subject areas...
member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
by the time young Hendrik was ready for elementary school. He entered Leal Elementary School
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
and rapidly advanced through the Urbana school system to graduate from high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
at the age of 14.
Immediately after graduation from high school he applied for admission to the University of Illinois but was denied because of his age. Decades later, in 1977, the same University would grant him an Honorary Sc.D. Degree.
He eventually applied and was accepted at Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
, where his father also taught, and he received his B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree
Academic degree
An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...
in 1924, at age 19, and his M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
Degree in 1926, both in Mathematics. After receiving his M.A. he remained at his alma mater
Alma mater
Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...
, working as a teaching assistant
Teaching assistant
A teaching assistant is an individual who assists a professor or teacher with instructional responsibilities. TAs include graduate teaching assistants , who are graduate students; undergraduate teaching assistants , who are undergraduate students; secondary school TAs, who are either high school...
, for an additional year.
Early contributions at Bell Labs and Ph.D.
Fresh from graduate schoolGraduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
he was promptly hired by Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
in New York City, where he began his career as designer of electronic filters and equalizers. Subsequently, in 1929, he was assigned to the Mathematical Research Group, where he excelled in research related to electronic networks theory and its application to telecommunications. Sponsored by Bell Laboratories he reentered graduate school, this time at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, and he successfully completed his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
in 1935.
In 1938, he developed his asymptotic phase and magnitude plots
Bode plot
A Bode plot is a graph of the transfer function of a linear, time-invariant system versus frequency, plotted with a log-frequency axis, to show the system's frequency response...
. His work on Automatic (Feedback
Feedback
Feedback describes the situation when output from an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or occurrences of the same Feedback describes the situation when output from (or information about the result of) an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or...
) Control Systems introduced innovative methods to the study of system stability that enabled engineers to investigate time domain
Time domain
Time domain is a term used to describe the analysis of mathematical functions, physical signals or time series of economic or environmental data, with respect to time. In the time domain, the signal or function's value is known for all real numbers, for the case of continuous time, or at various...
stability
BIBO stability
In electrical engineering, specifically signal processing and control theory, BIBO stability is a form of stability for linear signals and systems that take inputs. BIBO stands for Bounded-Input Bounded-Output...
using the frequency domain
Frequency domain
In electronics, control systems engineering, and statistics, frequency domain is a term used to describe the domain for analysis of mathematical functions or signals with respect to frequency, rather than time....
concepts of gain and phase margin
Phase margin
In electronic amplifiers, phase margin is the difference between the phase, measured in degrees, of an amplifier's output signal and 180°, as a function of frequency. The PM is taken as positive at frequencies below where the open-loop phase first crosses 180°, i.e. the signal becomes inverted,...
, the study of which was aided by his now famous plots.
In essence, his method made stability transparent to both the time and frequency domains and, furthermore, his frequency domain-based analysis was much faster and simpler than the traditional time-domain-based method. This provided engineers with a fast and intuitive stability analysis and system design tool that is as popular today as it was groundbreaking then.
Change of direction
With the inexorable onset of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Bode turned his sights on the military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
applications of his Control Systems research, a change of direction that would last in varying degree to the end of his career. He came to the service of his country by working on the Director Project at Bell Labs (funded by National Defense Research Committee
National Defense Research Committee
The National Defense Research Committee was an organization created "to coordinate, supervise, and conduct scientific research on the problems underlying the development, production, and use of mechanisms and devices of warfare" in the United States from June 27, 1940 until June 28, 1941...
(NDRC) Section D-2), developing automatic anti-aircraft control systems, whereby radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
information was used to provide data about the location of the enemy aircraft, which was then fed back to the anti-aircraft artillery servomechanism
Servomechanism
thumb|right|200px|Industrial servomotorThe grey/green cylinder is the [[Brush |brush-type]] [[DC motor]]. The black section at the bottom contains the [[Epicyclic gearing|planetary]] [[Reduction drive|reduction gear]], and the black object on top of the motor is the optical [[rotary encoder]] for...
s enabling automatic, radar-augmented enemy aircraft ballistic
Ballistics
Ballistics is the science of mechanics that deals with the flight, behavior, and effects of projectiles, especially bullets, gravity bombs, rockets, or the like; the science or art of designing and accelerating projectiles so as to achieve a desired performance.A ballistic body is a body which is...
tracking, in other words, automatic shooting down of enemy aircraft with the help of radar. The servomotors used were both electrically and hydraulically powered, the latter being used mainly for positioning the heavy anti-aircraft guns.
Closing the loop
The radar signal was locked on target and its data was wirelessly transmitted to a ground receiver that was connected to the artillery servomechanism feedback control system, causing the servo to accurately modify its angular position and maintain it for an optimum amount of time, long enough to fire at the calculated (predicted) coordinates of the target and thus successfully track, i.e. blow up, the target.A computer by any other name
The prediction of the coordinates was the function of DirectorDirector (military)
A director, also called an auxiliary predictor, is a mechanical or electronic computer that continuously calculates trigonometric firing solutions for use against a moving target, and transmits targeting data to direct the weapon firing crew....
T-10, a form of electrical computer so named because it was used to direct the positioning of the gun with respect to the airborne target. It also calculated the target average velocity based on the location information provided by the radar and predicted the future target location based on its assumed flightpath equation, usually a linear function of time. This system functioned as an early version of the modern Anti-ballistic missile defence model. Statistical analysis was also employed to aid in the computation of the exact position of the enemy aircraft and to smooth the data acquired from the target due to signal fluctuations and noise effects.
Shotgun marriage
Bode therefore realized the first wireless data feedback loop in the history of automatic control systems by combining wirelessWireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
data communications, electrical computers, statistics principles and feedback control systems theory. He showed his dry sense of humour
Humour
Humour or humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement...
by calling this multidisciplinary linkage a shotgun marriage, referring to the antiaircraft artillery origins of his historic invention.
A robot is born
The product of this "marriage", i.e. the automated artillery gun, can also be considered as a robotRobot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
weapon. Its function required to process data that was wirelessly transmitted to its sensors and make a decision based on the data received using its onboard computer about its output defined as its angular position and the timing of its firing mechanism. In this model we can see all the elements of later concepts such as data processing
Data processing
Computer data processing is any process that a computer program does to enter data and summarise, analyse or otherwise convert data into usable information. The process may be automated and run on a computer. It involves recording, analysing, sorting, summarising, calculating, disseminating and...
, automation
Automation
Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...
, artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
, cybernetics
Cybernetics
Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form...
, robotics
Robotics
Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...
etc.
Working on Director Studies
Bode, in addition, applied his extensive skills with feedback amplifiers to design the target data smoothing and position predictor networks of an improved model of Director T-10, called the Director T-15. The work on Director T-15 was undertaken under a new project at Bell Labs called Fundamental Director Studies in cooperation with the NDRC under the directorship of Walter McNair.NDRC, the funding agency of this project, was operating under the aegis
Aegis
An aegis is a large collar or cape worn in ancient times to display the protection provided by a high religious authority or the holder of a protective shield signifying the same, such as a bag-like garment that contained a shield. Sometimes the garment and the shield are merged, with a small...
of the Office of Scientific Research and Development
Office of Scientific Research and Development
The Office of Scientific Research and Development was an agency of the United States federal government created to coordinate scientific research for military purposes during World War II. Arrangements were made for its creation during May 1941, and it was created formally by on June 28, 1941...
(OSRD).
His NDRC-funded research at Bell Labs under the section D-2 (Control Systems section) contract eventually led to other important developments in related fields and laid the cornerstone for many present-day inventions. In the field of control theory
Control theory
Control theory is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering and mathematics that deals with the behavior of dynamical systems. The desired output of a system is called the reference...
, for example, it aided in the further development of servomechanism design and control, a crucial component of modern robotics
Robotics
Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...
. The development of Wireless Data Communications theory by Bode led to later inventions such as mobile phones and wireless networking.
The reason for the new project was that Director T-10 encountered difficulties in calculating the target velocity by differentiating the target position. Due to discontinuities, variations and noise in the radar signal, the position derivative
Derivative
In calculus, a branch of mathematics, the derivative is a measure of how a function changes as its input changes. Loosely speaking, a derivative can be thought of as how much one quantity is changing in response to changes in some other quantity; for example, the derivative of the position of a...
s sometimes fluctuated wildly and this caused erratic motion in the servomechanisms of the gun because their control signal was based on the value of the derivatives. This could be mitigated by smoothing or averaging out the data but this caused delays in the feedback loop that enabled the target to escape. As well, the algorithms of Director T-10 required a number of transformations from cartesian
Cartesian coordinate system
A Cartesian coordinate system specifies each point uniquely in a plane by a pair of numerical coordinates, which are the signed distances from the point to two fixed perpendicular directed lines, measured in the same unit of length...
(rectangular) to polar coordinates and back to Cartesian, a process that introduced additional tracking errors
Approximation error
The approximation error in some data is the discrepancy between an exact value and some approximation to it. An approximation error can occur because#the measurement of the data is not precise due to the instruments...
.
Bode designed the velocity
Velocity
In physics, velocity is speed in a given direction. Speed describes only how fast an object is moving, whereas velocity gives both the speed and direction of the object's motion. To have a constant velocity, an object must have a constant speed and motion in a constant direction. Constant ...
computing networks of Director T-15 by applying a finite difference method
Finite difference method
In mathematics, finite-difference methods are numerical methods for approximating the solutions to differential equations using finite difference equations to approximate derivatives.- Derivation from Taylor's polynomial :...
instead of differentiation
Derivative
In calculus, a branch of mathematics, the derivative is a measure of how a function changes as its input changes. Loosely speaking, a derivative can be thought of as how much one quantity is changing in response to changes in some other quantity; for example, the derivative of the position of a...
. Under this scheme the target positional coordinates were stored in a mechanical memory, usually a potentiometer
Potentiometer
A potentiometer , informally, a pot, is a three-terminal resistor with a sliding contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider. If only two terminals are used , it acts as a variable resistor or rheostat. Potentiometers are commonly used to control electrical devices such as volume controls on...
or a cam
Cam
A cam is a rotating or sliding piece in a mechanical linkage used especially in transforming rotary motion into linear motion or vice-versa. It is often a part of a rotating wheel or shaft that strikes a lever at one or more points on its circular path...
. The velocity was then calculated by taking the difference between the coordinates of the current position and the coordinates of the previous reading that were stored in memory and dividing by the difference of their respective times. This method was more robust than the differentiation method and it also smoothed out signal disturbances since the finite time-step size was less sensitive to random signal impulses
Impulse response
In signal processing, the impulse response, or impulse response function , of a dynamic system is its output when presented with a brief input signal, called an impulse. More generally, an impulse response refers to the reaction of any dynamic system in response to some external change...
(spikes
Voltage spike
In electrical engineering, spikes are fast, short duration electrical transients in voltage , current , or transferred energy in an electrical circuit....
). It also introduced for the first time an algorithm better suited to modern digital
Discrete signal
A discrete signal or discrete-time signal is a time series consisting of a sequence of qualities...
signal processing
Digital signal processing
Digital signal processing is concerned with the representation of discrete time signals by a sequence of numbers or symbols and the processing of these signals. Digital signal processing and analog signal processing are subfields of signal processing...
theory rather than to the classical Calculus
Calculus
Calculus is a branch of mathematics focused on limits, functions, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series. This subject constitutes a major part of modern mathematics education. It has two major branches, differential calculus and integral calculus, which are related by the fundamental theorem...
-based analog signal processing
Analog signal processing
Analog signal processing is any signal processing conducted on analog signals by analog means. "Analog" indicates something that is mathematically represented as a set of continuous values. This differs from "digital" which uses a series of discrete quantities to represent signal...
approach that was followed then. Not coincidentally it is an integral part of modern digital control theory and digital signal processing and it is known as the backward difference algorithm. In addition the Director T-15 operated only in rectangular coordinates thus eliminating coordinate transformation-based errors. These design innovations paid performance dividends and the Director T-15 was twice as accurate as its predecessor and it converged on a target twice as fast.
The fire control algorithm
Algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...
implementation of his artillery design research and his extensive work with feedback amplifiers advanced the state of the art in computational methods and led to the eventual development of the electronic analog computer
Analog computer
An analog computer is a form of computer that uses the continuously-changeable aspects of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities to model the problem being solved...
, the operational amplifier
Operational amplifier
An operational amplifier is a DC-coupled high-gain electronic voltage amplifier with a differential input and, usually, a single-ended output...
based alternative of today's digital computers.
Inventions such as these, ironically, given their military research origins, have had a profound and lasting impact in the civilian
Civilian
A civilian under international humanitarian law is a person who is not a member of his or her country's armed forces or other militia. Civilians are distinct from combatants. They are afforded a degree of legal protection from the effects of war and military occupation...
domain and have forever altered its landscape
Landscape
Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...
.
Anzio and Normandy
The automated anti-aircraft guns that Bode helped develop were successfully used in numerous instances during the war. In February 1944 the automated fire control system, based on the earlier version of the Director T-15, called the Director T-10 by Bell Labs or Director M-9 by the military, saw action for the first time in AnzioOperation Shingle
Operation Shingle , during the Italian Campaign of World War II, was an Allied amphibious landing against Axis forces in the area of Anzio and Nettuno, Italy. The operation was commanded by Major General John P. Lucas and was intended to outflank German forces of the Winter Line and enable an...
, Italy where it helped down over one hundred enemy aircraft. On D-day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
thirty nine units were deployed in Normandy
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...
to protect the allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
invading force against Hitler's Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
.
Clash of the Robots
Perhaps the menace best suited for the design specifications of such an automated artillery system appeared in June 1944. Not surprisingly it was another robot. The German Aeronautical Engineers aided by Wernher von BraunWernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun was a German rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, space architect, and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany during World War II and in the United States after that.A former member of the Nazi party,...
produced a robot of their own; the V-1 flying bomb
V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb, also known as the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug, was an early pulse-jet-powered predecessor of the cruise missile....
, an automatically guided bomb and widely considered a precursor of the Cruise missile
Cruise missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and is propelled, usually by a jet engine, towards a land-based or sea-based target. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy...
. Its flight specifications almost perfectly suited the target design criteria of Director T-10, that of an aircraft flying straight and level at constant velocity, in other words a target nicely fitting the computing capabilities of a linear predictor model such as the Director T-10. Although the Germans did have a trick up their engineering sleeve by making the bomb fly fast and low to evade radar, a technique widely adopted even today. During the London Blitz one hundred Director T-10 assisted 90 mm automated gun units were set up in a perimeter south of London, at the special request of Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
. The AA
Anti-aircraft warfare
NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...
units included the SCR-584 radar unit produced by the Radiation Lab at MIT and the proximity fuse
Fuse (explosives)
In an explosive, pyrotechnic device or military munition, a fuse is the part of the device that initiates function. In common usage, the word fuse is used indiscriminately...
mechanism, developed by Merle Tuve
Merle Tuve
Merle Anthony Tuve, PhD was an American scientist and geophysicist who was the founding director of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He was a pioneer in the use of pulsed radio waves whose discoveries opened the way to the development of radar and nuclear...
and his special Division T at NDRC, that detonated near the target using a microwave
Microwave
Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
controlled fuse called the VT or variable time fuse, enabling a larger detonation reach envelope and increasing the chances of a successful outcome. Between 18 June and 17 July 1944, 343 V-1 bombs were shot down or 10% of the total V-1 number sent by the Germans and about 20% of the total V-1 bombs shot down. From 17 July to 31 August the automated gun kills rose to 1286 V-1 rockets or 34% of the total V-1 number dispatched from Germany and 50% of the V-1 actually shot down over London. From these statistics it can be seen that the automated systems that Bode helped design had a considerable impact on crucial battles of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. It can also be seen that London at the time of the Blitz
Blitzkrieg
For other uses of the word, see: Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,...
became, among other things, the original robot battle
Battle
Generally, a battle is a conceptual component in the hierarchy of combat in warfare between two or more armed forces, or combatants. In a battle, each combatant will seek to defeat the others, with defeat determined by the conditions of a military campaign...
field.
Synergy with Shannon
In 1945, as the war was winding down, the NDRC was issuing a summary of technical reports as the prelude to its eventual closing down. Inside the volume on Fire Control a special essay titled Data Smoothing and Prediction in Fire-Control Systems, coauthored by Ralph Beebe BlackmanRalph Beebe Blackman
Ralph Beebe Blackman was an American mathematician and engineer who was among thepioneers of the information age along with Claude E. Shannon, Hendrik Wade Bode, and John Tukey. He worked at Bell Laboratories in the 1960s and authored books on the topic of spectrum estimation.- Books :* R. B....
, Hendrik Bode, and Claude Shannon, formally introduced the problem of fire control as a special case of transmission, manipulation and utilization of intelligence, in other words it modeled the problem in terms of data
Data processing
Computer data processing is any process that a computer program does to enter data and summarise, analyse or otherwise convert data into usable information. The process may be automated and run on a computer. It involves recording, analysing, sorting, summarising, calculating, disseminating and...
and signal processing
Signal processing
Signal processing is an area of systems engineering, electrical engineering and applied mathematics that deals with operations on or analysis of signals, in either discrete or continuous time...
and thus heralded the coming of the information age
Information Age
The Information Age, also commonly known as the Computer Age or Digital Age, is an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously...
. Shannon, considered to be the father of information theory
Information theory
Information theory is a branch of applied mathematics and electrical engineering involving the quantification of information. Information theory was developed by Claude E. Shannon to find fundamental limits on signal processing operations such as compressing data and on reliably storing and...
, was greatly influenced by this work. It is clear that the technological convergence
Technological convergence
Technological convergence is the tendency for different technological systems to evolve towards performing similar tasks. Convergence can refer to previously separate technologies such as voice , data , and video that now share resources and interact with each other synergistically.The rise of...
of the information age was preceded by the synergy
Synergy
Synergy may be defined as two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable.The term synergy comes from the Greek word from , , meaning "working together".-Definitions and usages:...
between these scientific minds and their collaborators.
Further wartime achievements
In 1944, Bode was placed in charge of the Mathematical Research Group at Bell Laboratories.His work on electronic communications, especially on filter and equalizer design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
,
continued during this time. In 1945 it culminated in the publication of his book under the title of Network Analysis and Feedback
Feedback
Feedback describes the situation when output from an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or occurrences of the same Feedback describes the situation when output from (or information about the result of) an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or...
Amplifier
Amplifier
Generally, an amplifier or simply amp, is a device for increasing the power of a signal.In popular use, the term usually describes an electronic amplifier, in which the input "signal" is usually a voltage or a current. In audio applications, amplifiers drive the loudspeakers used in PA systems to...
Design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
,, which is considered a classic in the field of electronic
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
telecommunications and was extensively used as a textbook for many graduate programs at various universities as well as for internal training courses at Bell Labs.
He was also the prolific author of many research papers that were published in prestigious scientific and technical journals
Academic journal
An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
.
President's Certificate of Merit
In 1948, PresidentPresident
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
awarded him the President's Certificate of Merit
President's Certificate of Merit
The President's Certificate of Merit was created June 6, 1946 by Executive Order 9734 signed by US President Harry Truman, "for award by the President or at his direction to any civilian who on or after December 7, 1941 , has performed a meritorious act or service which has aided the United States...
, in recognition of his remarkable scientific contributions to the war effort and to the United States of America.
Change of focus
As the war came to an end, his research focus shifted to include not only military but civilian research projects as well. On the military side he continued pursuing ballistic missile research, including research on antiballistic missile defence and associated computingComputing
Computing is usually defined as the activity of using and improving computer hardware and software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology...
algorithms, and in the civilian domain he concentrated on modern communication theory. On the post-war military research front he worked on the Nike Zeus
Project Nike
Project Nike was a U.S. Army project, proposed in May 1945 by Bell Laboratories, to develop a line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system. The project delivered the United States' first operational anti-aircraft missile system, the Nike Ajax, in 1953...
missile project as part of a team with Douglas Aircraft, and later on the design of anti-ballistic missile
Anti-ballistic missile
An anti-ballistic missile is a missile designed to counter ballistic missiles .A ballistic missile is used to deliver nuclear, chemical, biological or conventional warheads in a ballistic flight trajectory. The term "anti-ballistic missile" describes any antimissile system designed to counter...
s.
Progress and eventual twilight in a long career at Bell Labs
In 1952, he was promoted to the level of Director of Mathematical Research at Bell LabsBell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
. In 1955, he became Director of Research in the Physical Sciences, and remained there until 1958, when he was promoted again to become one of the two Vice Presidents in charge of Military Development and Systems Engineering, a position he held up to his retirement.
His applied research at Bell Labs over the years led to numerous patented inventions, some of which were registered in his name. By the time of his retirement he held a total of 25 patents in various areas of electrical and communications engineering, including signal amplifiers and artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
control systems.
He retired from Bell Labs in October 1967, at the age of 61, ending an association that spanned more than four decades and changed the face of many of the core elements of Modern Engineering.
Gordon McKay
Soon after retirement, Bode was elected to the academically prestigious Gordon McKay ProfessorProfessor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Systems Engineering position at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
During his tenure there, he pursued research on military decision making algorithms and optimization
Optimization (mathematics)
In mathematics, computational science, or management science, mathematical optimization refers to the selection of a best element from some set of available alternatives....
techniques based on stochastic processes that are considered a precursor of modern fuzzy logic
Fuzzy logic
Fuzzy logic is a form of many-valued logic; it deals with reasoning that is approximate rather than fixed and exact. In contrast with traditional logic theory, where binary sets have two-valued logic: true or false, fuzzy logic variables may have a truth value that ranges in degree between 0 and 1...
.
He also studied the effects of technology on modern society and taught courses on the same subject at Harvard's Science and Public Policy Seminar, while supervising and teaching graduate students at the same time in the division of Engineering and Applied Physics.
Research legacy
Although his professorial duties were demanding of his time, he kept a keen eye on leaving his research legacy. He was simultaneously working on a new book that expounded on his extensive experience as a researcher at Bell Labs, which he published in 1971 under the title Synergy: Technical Integration and Technological Innovation in the Bell SystemBell System
The Bell System was the American Bell Telephone Company and then, subsequently, AT&T led system which provided telephone services to much of the United States and Canada from 1877 to 1984, at various times as a monopoly. In 1984, the company was broken up into separate companies, by a U.S...
. Using terms easily accessible even to laymen, he analyzed and expanded on technical and philosophical aspects of systems engineering as practised at Bell Labs. He explained how seemingly different fields of Engineering were merging, guided by the necessity of the flow of information between system components that transcended previously well defined boundaries and thus he introduced us to a technological paradigm shift
Paradigm shift
A Paradigm shift is, according to Thomas Kuhn in his influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions , a change in the basic assumptions, or paradigms, within the ruling theory of science...
. As it is clear from the title of the book as well as its contents, he became one of the early exponents of technological convergence
Technological convergence
Technological convergence is the tendency for different technological systems to evolve towards performing similar tasks. Convergence can refer to previously separate technologies such as voice , data , and video that now share resources and interact with each other synergistically.The rise of...
, infometrics and information processing
Information processing
Information processing is the change of information in any manner detectable by an observer. As such, it is a process which describes everything which happens in the universe, from the falling of a rock to the printing of a text file from a digital computer system...
before the terms even existed.
In 1974, he retired for the second time and Harvard awarded him the honorary position of Professor Emeritus. He, nevertheless, kept his office at Harvard and continued working from there, mainly as an advisor to government on policy matters.
Academic and professional distinctions
Bode received awards, honours and professional distinctions.Academic medals and awards
In 1969, IEEE awarded him the renowned Edison Medal for "fundamental contributions to the arts of communication, computation and control; for leadership in bringing mathematical science to bear on engineering problems; and for guidance and creative counsel in systems engineering", a tribute that eloquently summarized the wide spectrum of his innovative contributions to engineering science and applied mathematics as a researcher, and to society as an advisor and professor.In 1975, ASME
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers is a professional body, specifically an engineering society, focused on mechanical engineering....
awarded him the Rufus Oldenberger Award.
In 1979, he became the first recipient of the Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award
Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award
The Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award is an annual award given by the American Automatic Control Council for achievements in control theory, named after the applied mathematician Richard E. Bellman...
from the American Automatic Control Council
American Automatic Control Council
The American Automatic Control Council is an organization founded in 1956 for research in control theory. It is an association of the control systems divisions of eight member societies and a member of the International Federation of Automatic Control....
. The award is given to researchers with "distinguished career contributions to the theory or applications of automatic control
Automatic control
Automatic control is the application of concepts derived from the research area of modern control theory. Automatic control is also a technology for application of control strategies. The implementing requires prior of analyzing and modeling of the subject to be controlled...
", and "it is the highest recognition of professional achievement for US control system
Control system
A control system is a device, or set of devices to manage, command, direct or regulate the behavior of other devices or system.There are two common classes of control systems, with many variations and combinations: logic or sequential controls, and feedback or linear controls...
s engineers and scientists".
Posthumously, in 1989, the IEEE Control Systems Society
IEEE Control Systems Society
IEEE Control Systems Society is an organizational unit of the IEEE. It was founded in 1954 and is dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practice of systems and control in engineering.-History:...
established the Hendrik W. Bode Lecture Prize in order to: recognize distinguished contributions to control systems science or engineering.
Memberships to academic organizations and government committees
He was also a member or fellowFellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
in a number of scientific and engineering societies such as the IEEE, American Physical Society
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...
, Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Applied mathematics
Applied mathematics is a branch of mathematics that concerns itself with mathematical methods that are typically used in science, engineering, business, and industry. Thus, "applied mathematics" is a mathematical science with specialized knowledge...
etc. and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
, an independent American Academy, that is not part of the U.S. National Academies
United States National Academies
The United States National Academies comprises four organizations:* National Academy of Sciences * National Academy of Engineering * Institute of Medicine * National Research Council...
.
In 1957, he was elected member to the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
, the oldest and most prestigious U.S. National Academy established at the height of the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, in 1863, by then President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
.
COSPUP
From 1967 to 1971, he served as a member of the Council of the National Academy of Sciences. At the same time he served as the representative of the Academy's Engineering section on the Committee on Science and Public Policy (COSPUP).Being a deep thinker as well as a lucid writer he significantly contributed to three important COSPUP studies:
Basic Research and National Goals (1965), Applied Science and Technological Progress (1967) and Technology: Processes of Assessment and Choice (1969). These studies had the additional distinction of being the first ever to be prepared by the Academy for the Legislative Branch, or more specifically for the Committee on Science and Astronautics
Astronautics
Astronautics, and related astronautical engineering, is the theory and practice of navigation beyond the Earth's atmosphere. In other words, it is the science and technology of space flight....
of the U.S. House of Representatives, thus fulfilling the Academy's mandate, under its Charter, as an advisory body to the U.S. Government.
Special Committee on Space Technology
The predecessor of NASANASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
was NACA. NACA's Special Committee on Space Technology also called the Stever Committee, after its chairman Guyford Stever
Guyford Stever
Horton Guyford Stever was an American administrator, physicist, educator, and engineer.-Biography:Stever was raised in Corning, New York, principally by his maternal grandmother. He played football in high school...
, was a special steering committee that was formed with the mandate to coordinate various branches of the Federal government, private companies as well as universities within the United States with NACA's objectives and also harness their expertise in order to develop a space program.
Committee members included: Bode and Wernher von Braun the father of the US space program.
It is a historical
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
irony
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
that Hendrik Wade Bode, the man who helped develop the robot weapons that brought down the Nazi V-1 flying bomb
V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb, also known as the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug, was an early pulse-jet-powered predecessor of the cruise missile....
s over London during WWII
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, was actually serving in the same committee and sitting at the same table as Wernher von Braun who worked on the development of the V-1 and was the head of the team which developed the V-2, the weapon that terrorised London.
Hobbies and family life
Bode was an avid reader in his spare time. He also co-wrote Counting House, a fictional story, with his wife Barbara which was published by Harper's magazineHarper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
in August 1936. Bode also enjoyed boating
Boating
Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether powerboats, sailboats, or man-powered vessels , focused on the travel itself, as well as sports activities, such as fishing or water skiing...
. Early on in his career, while working for Bell Labs in New York, he used to sail-boat on Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the United States between Connecticut to the north and Long Island, New York to the south. The mouth of the Connecticut River at Old Saybrook, Connecticut, empties into the sound. On its western end the sound is bounded by the Bronx...
. After World War II, he bought a surplus
Military surplus
Military surplus are goods, usually matériel, that are sold or otherwise disposed of when no longer needed by the military. Entrepreneurs often buy these goods and resell them at surplus stores. Military surplus rarely includes weapons or munitions, though they are occasionally found in such stores...
landing craft (LCT
Landing craft tank
The Landing Craft, Tank was an amphibious assault ship for landing tanks on beachheads. They were initially developed by the British Royal Navy and later by the United States Navy during World War II in a series of versions. Initially known as the "Tank Landing Craft" by the British, they later...
) with which he explored the upper reaches of the Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...
near the eastern shore of Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. He also enjoyed gardening
Gardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...
and do-it-yourself projects. He was married to Barbara Bode (nee
NEE
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
Poore). Together they had two children; Dr. Katharine Bode Darlington and Mrs. Anne Hathaway Bode Aarnes.
Engineering legacy
Bode, despite all the high distinctions he received, both from Academia and Government, did not rest on his laurels. He believed that engineeringEngineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
, as an institution
Institution
An institution is any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human community...
, deserved a place in the Pantheon
Pantheon (gods)
A pantheon is a set of all the gods of a particular polytheistic religion or mythology.Max Weber's 1922 opus, Economy and Society discusses the link between a...
of academia
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
as much as science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
did. With typical engineering resourcefulness he solved the problem by helping create another academy
Academy
An academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership.The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece. In the western world academia is the...
.
He is among the founding members and served as a regular member of the National Academy of Engineering
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering is a government-created non-profit institution in the United States, that was founded in 1964 under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences...
, that was created on December 1964, only the second U.S. National Academy in one hundred and one years since the inception of the first, and which now forms part of the United States National Academies
United States National Academies
The United States National Academies comprises four organizations:* National Academy of Sciences * National Academy of Engineering * Institute of Medicine * National Research Council...
.
He thus helped sublimate
Sublimation (psychology)
In psychology, sublimation is a mature type of defence mechanism where socially unacceptable impulses or idealizations are consciously transformed into socially acceptable actions or behaviour, possibly converting the initial impulse in the long term...
the age-old debate
Debate
Debate or debating is a method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion...
of engineers versus scientists and elevated it into a debate between academics. This subtle, yet powerfully symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
ic accomplishment, constitutes a compelling part of his legacy.
Hendrik Wade Bode died at the age of 76, at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
Publications
- Network Analysis and Feedback Amplifier Design (1945)
- Synergy: Technical Integration and Technological Innovation in the Bell SystemBell SystemThe Bell System was the American Bell Telephone Company and then, subsequently, AT&T led system which provided telephone services to much of the United States and Canada from 1877 to 1984, at various times as a monopoly. In 1984, the company was broken up into separate companies, by a U.S...
(1971) - Counting house (FictionFictionFiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
) Hendrik W. (Hendrik Wade) Bode and Barbara Bode Harper's magazineHarper's MagazineHarper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
The Lion's mouth dept. pp. 326–329, August 1936
US Patents granted
Twenty five patents were issued by the U.S. Patent Office to Bode for his inventions. The patents covered areas such as data transmissionData transmission
Data transmission, digital transmission, or digital communications is the physical transfer of data over a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint communication channel. Examples of such channels are copper wires, optical fibres, wireless communication channels, and storage media...
networks, electronic filter
Electronic filter
Electronic filters are electronic circuits which perform signal processing functions, specifically to remove unwanted frequency components from the signal, to enhance wanted ones, or both...
s, amplifiers, averaging mechanisms, data smoothing networks and artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
computers.