The present book is a translation and an expansion of lecture notes cor- sponding to a course of Mathematics of Control delivered during four years at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chauss ees (Marne-la-Vall ee, France) to Master students. A reduced version of this course has also been given at the Master level at the University of Paris-Sud since eight years. It may the- fore serve as lecture notes for teaching at the Master or PhD level but also as a comprehensive introduction to researchers interested in atness and more generally in the mathematical theory of nite dimensional systems and c- trol. This book may be seen as an outcome of the applied research policy pi- oneered by the Ecole des Mines de Paris (now MINES-ParisTech), France, aiming not only at academic excellence, but also at collaborating with - dustries on speci c innovative projects to enhance technological innovation using the most advanced know-how. This in uence, though indirectly visible, mainly concerns the originality of some of the topics addressed here which are, in a sense, a theoretic synthesis of the author's applied contributions and viewpoints in the control eld, continuously elaborated and modi ed in contact with the industrial realities. Such a synthesis wouldn't have been made possible without the scienti c trust and nancial support of many c- panies during periods ranging from two to ten years.

In the 60's, control, signals and systems had a common linear algebraic background and, according to their evolution, their respective backgrounds have now dramatically differed. Recovering such a common background, especially in the nonlinear context, is currently a fully open question. The role played by physical models, finite or infinite dimensional, in this hypothetical convergence is extensively discussed in this book. The discussion does not only take place on a theoretical basis but also in the light of two wide classes of applications, among the most active in the current industrially oriented researches: - Electrical and Mechatronical systems; - Chemical Processes and systems appearing in Life Sciences. In this perspective, this book is a contribution to the enhancement of the dialogue between theoretical laboratories and more practically oriented ones and industries. This book is a collection of articles that have been presented by leading international experts at a series of three workshops of a Bernoulli program entitled "Advances in the Theory of Control, Signals and Systems, with Physical Modeling" hosted by the Bernoulli Centre of EPFL during the first semester of 2009. It provides researchers, engineers and graduate students with an unprecedented collection of topics and internationally acknowledged top-quality works and surveys.