Steering a time scale by the application of the theory of control

The goal of this paper is to investigate clock steering methods in the framework of control theory. The current steering techniques have been developed using different approaches. Our aim is to apply control theory methods to the analysis of the most common steering strategies. The first issue to be studied is the evaluation of the clock models, and the laws that govern the control signal and the controlled one. A correct modelling of the control electronic device (actuator), which is typically a microstepper, allows to obtain a suitable model of the controlled process. The obtained results are presented, they are very encouraging and suggest further investigation of these problems.