Meaningful control experiments

For a controls experiment to be meaningful, it should provide knowledge that cannot be gained from theory or simulation. The authors maintain that the value of experiments is proportional to their fidelity to an industrial motivating problem. Without this, claims regarding the efficacy of a control method cannot be substantiated to any degree more than they could via simulation. The control of a high speed milling spindle is reviewed as an example of a problem where only a prototype experiment is compelling