The acquisition of knowledge about systems and the processing of information about them are key features of modern control engineering technology. This is the theme for a volume of articles setting out the scope and content to be covered at the European Control Conference (ECC '93) in Groningen, the Netherlands. The book provides a broad overview of the field of control and a discussion of its development both from a theoretical and an engineering perspective. It contains the fully developed articles on which the plenary addresses and mini-courses of the Conference are based. Among the topics dealt with in the lectures are motion control, chemical process control, Hoo-control, design of robust controllers and learning control. The mini-courses cover differential algebra and systems, Hoo-methods in designing robust industrial controllers, and neural networks in control. Applications are discussed for problems as robotics and vision, quality control, and in the modelling, identification, and optimization of industrial processes. Research workers in the field of control and systems theory, in its broadest interpretation, will find much of interest in both their theoretical investigations and critical industrial applications.

This self-contained volume surveys three decades of mathematical control theory and at the same time describes how the work of Roger Brockett shaped and influenced its development. Nine survey articles written by leading experts in the field, who have also been closely associated with Roger Brockett at various stages in his career, treat the subject cohesively and in depth. This volume will provide an important reference for graduate students and researchers, as well as for mathematicians, engineers and scientists whose work involves concepts and the language of control and systems theory.

Using the behavioural approach to mathematical modelling, this book views a system as a dynamical relation between manifest and latent variables. The emphasis is on dynamical systems that are represented by systems of linear constant coefficients. The first part analyses the structure of the set of trajectories generated by such dynamical systems, and derives the conditions for two systems of differential equations to be equivalent in the sense that they define the same behaviour. In addition the memory structure of the system is analysed through state space models. The second part of the book is devoted to a number of important system properties, notably controllability, observability, and stability. In the third part, control problems are considered, in particular stabilisation and pole placement questions. Suitable for advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students in mathematics and engineering, this text contains numerous exercises, including simulation problems, and examples, notably of mechanical systems and electrical circuits.

This volume on mathematical control theory contains high quality articles covering the broad range of this field. The internationally renowned authors provide an overview of many different aspects of control theory, offering a historical perspective while bringing the reader up to the very forefront of current research.