This monograph details basic concepts and tools fundamental for the analysis and synthesis of linear systems subject to actuator saturation and developments in recent research. The authors use a state-space approach and focus on stability analysis and the synthesis of stabilizing control laws in both local and global contexts. Different methods of modeling the saturation and behavior of the nonlinear closed-loop system are given special attention. Various kinds of Lyapunov functions are considered to present different stability conditions. Results arising from uncertain systems and treating performance in the presence of saturation are given. The text proposes methods and algorithms, based on the use of linear programming and linear matrix inequalities, for computing estimates of the basin of attraction and for designing control systems accounting for the control bounds and the possibility of saturation. They can be easily implemented with mathematical software packages.

This monograph details basic concepts and tools fundamental for the analysis and synthesis of linear systems subject to actuator saturation and developments in recent research. The authors use a state-space approach and focus on stability analysis and the synthesis of stabilizing control laws in both local and global contexts. Different methods of modeling the saturation and behavior of the nonlinear closed-loop system are given special attention. Various kinds of Lyapunov functions are considered to present different stability conditions. Results arising from uncertain systems and treating performance in the presence of saturation are given. The text proposes methods and algorithms, based on the use of linear programming and linear matrix inequalities, for computing estimates of the basin of attraction and for designing control systems accounting for the control bounds and the possibility of saturation. They can be easily implemented with mathematical software packages.

Creating some links between control feedback and biology modeling communities based on similarities in modeling, observing and perceiving alive structures, and analyzing interconnections between biological structures and subsystems was the main objective of this volume.

In this context, biology systems need appropriate analysis tools due to their structure and hierarchy, complexity and environment interference, and we believe that these aspects may generate interesting research topics in control area. Indeed, several works, raising the potential impact of control developments to bring some beginning of answers in the context of biological systems, have been published in the recent years.

The idea of this book was conceived in the context mentioned above with the objective to help in claiming many of the problems for control researchers, starting discussions and opening interactive debates between the control and biology communities, and, finally, to alert graduate students to the many interesting ideas at the frontier between control feedback theory and biology.

In this book, two robust control methods, based on Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) and Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs), are proposed. These methods allow to obtain simple and systematic procedures to synthesize control laws for uncertain dc-dc converters that require high levels of performance. The first method proposed in the book, based on the QFT technique, allows to obtain controllers with large control bandwidth and custom-shaped input-output responses. The method has been applied to the robust control of power conditioning units satisfying a well-known industry standard. The second design method is based on the LMI control problem formulation. With this method, the designer can take into account the transient characteristics and perturbation rejection properties of the converter, while assuring the robust stability despite the uncertainties and the nonlinearities of the converter. Since it is based on LMIs, this method allows to synthesize robust controllers automatically, using optimization algorithms. Both methods have been verified with experimental prototypes that confirm the practical feasibility of such robust control techniques in the area of power converters.

A reset controller is a linear controller whose output is reset to zero whenever its input and output satisfy an appropriate algebraic relationship. It has widespread industrial applications and is used in many modern day control systems.This monograph provides a comprehensive survey into three parts. Part I provides an historical literature review and presents some fundamental results. Part II deals with nonplanar reset systems and covers several reset rules that may be used to augment high-order controllers for plants of any order. It also provides several simulation studies showing that reset control strategies may allow to attain better performance with respect to the optimal ones obtained by classical continuous-time controllers. Part III focuses on planar systems and reports on a nontrivial generalization of the basic mechanisms emerging in Clegg integrators and First Order Reset Elements (FORE). Relevant case studies emerging in the automotive field are included. This monograph gives an in-depth assessment of the state-of-the-art and provides the reader with a starting point for further research into the increasingly important topic of Reset Control Systems.