Integral processes with dead time are frequently encountered in the process industry; typical examples include supply chains, level control and batch distillation columns. Special attention must be paid to their control because they lack asymptotic stability (they are not self-regulating) and because of their delays. As a result, many techniques have been devised to cope with these hurdles both in the context of single-degree-of-freedom (proportional-integral-differential (PID)) and two-degree-of-freedom control schemes.

Control of Integral Processes with Dead Time provides a unified and coherent review of the various approaches devised for the control of integral processes, addressing the problem from different standpoints. In particular, the book treats the following topics:

how to tune a PID controller and assess its performance;

how to design a two-degree-of-freedom control scheme in order to deal with both the set-point following and load disturbance rejection tasks;

how to modify the basic Smith predictor control scheme in order to cope with the presence of an integrator in the process; and

how to address the presence of large process dead times.

The methods are presented sequentially, highlighting the evolution of their rationale and implementation and thus clearly characterising them from both academic and industrial perspectives. Control of Integral Processes with Dead Time will serve academic researchers in systems with dead time both as a reference and stimulus for new ideas for further work and will help industry-based control and process engineers to solve their control problems using the most suitable technique and achieving the best cost: benefit ratio."

Systems with delays appear frequently in engineering; typical examples of time-delay systems are communication networks, chemical processes and tele-operation systems. The presence of delays makes system analysis and control design much more complicated. During the last decade, we have witnessed significant developments in robust control of time-delay systems. Robust Control of Time-delay Systems presents a systematic and comprehensive treatment for robust (H-infinity) control of such systems in the frequency domain. The emphasis is on systems with a single input or output delay, although the delay-free part of the plant can be multi-input-multi-output, in which case the delays in different channels should be the same.

This synthesis of the authora (TM)s recent work covers the whole range of robust control of time-delay systems: from controller parameterization and design to controller implementation; from the Nehari and one-block problems to the four-block problem; from theoretical developments to practical issues. The major tools used in this book are similarity transformation, the chain-scattering approach and J-spectral factorization. The idea is, in the words of Albert Einstein, to "make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." A website associated with the book is a source of MATLABA(R) and SimulinkA(R) material which will assist with simulation and modelling of the material in the text.

Robust Control of Time-delay Systems is self-contained and will interest control theorists, researchers and mathematicians working with time-delay systems and engineers looking to design commercial controllers or to use them in plants or communication systems with time delays.Its methodical approach will also be of value to graduates studying either general robust control theory or its particular applications in time-delay systems.

Control of Integral Processes with Dead Time provides a unified and coherent review of the various approaches devised for the control of integral processes, addressing the problem from different standpoints. In particular, the book treats the following topics: How to tune a PID controller and assess its performance; How to design a two-degree-of-freedom control scheme in order to deal with both the set-point following and load disturbance rejection tasks; How to modify the basic Smith predictor control scheme in order to cope with the presence of an integrator in the process; and how to address the presence of large process dead times. The methods are presented sequentially, highlighting the evolution of their rationale and implementation and thus clearly characterising them from both academic and industrial perspectives.

Recently, there have been significant developments in robust control of time-delay systems. This volume presents a systematic treatment of robust control for such systems in the frequency domain. The emphasis is on systems with a single input or output delay, although the delay-free part of the plant can be multi-input-multi-output, in which case the delays in different channels should be the same.

The author covers the whole range of H-infinity control of time-delay systems: from controller parameterization implementation; from the Nehari problem to the four-block problem; from theoretical developments to practical issues. The major tools used are similarity transformation, the chain-scattering approach and J-spectral factorization.

Self-contained, "Robust Control of Time-delay Systems" will interest control theorists and mathematicians working with time-delay systems. Its methodical approach will be of value to graduates studying general robust control theory or its applications in time-delay systems.