> state of close to change, they can bounce back and forth between on and off.
I believe the general concept is called hysteresis(1). Many systems require some prior state knowledge before acting to avoid cycling near the setpoint. As you said, the simplest solution is often a deadband around the setpoint so that action can never result in a state requiring action.
> I believe the general concept is called hysteresis
Hysteresis is what you add to the sensor in order to debounce. The bouncing effect itself is not called hysterisis, and does not require the system to have any memory - you get it as soon as there's noise in the measurement, which there always is.
I believe the general concept is called hysteresis(1). Many systems require some prior state knowledge before acting to avoid cycling near the setpoint. As you said, the simplest solution is often a deadband around the setpoint so that action can never result in a state requiring action.
1: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysteresis