There is an increasing demand for dynamic systems to become more safe and reliable. This requirement extends beyond the normally accepted safety-critical systems of nuclear reactors and aircraft where safety is paramount important, to systems such as autonomous vehicles and fast railways where the system availability is vital. It is clear that fault diagnosis (including fault detection and isolation, FDI) has been becoming an important subject in modern control theory and practice. For example, the number of papers on FDI presented in many control-related conferences has been increasing steadily. The subject of fault detection and isolation continues to mature to an established field of research in control engineering. A large amount of knowledge on model-based fault diagnosis has been ac cumulated through the literature since the beginning of the 1970s. However, publications are scattered over many papers and a few edited books. Up to the end of 1997, there is no any book which presents the subject in an unified framework. The consequence of this is the lack of "common language," dif ferent researchers use different terminology. This problem has obstructed the progress of model-based FDI techniques and has been causing great concern in research community. Many survey papers have been published to tackle this problem. However, a book which presents the materials in a unified format and provides a comprehensive foundation of model-based FDI is urgently needed."

There is an increasing demand for dynamic systems to become safer and more reliable. This requirement extends beyond the normally accepted safety-critical systems such as nuclear reactors and aircraft, where safety is of paramount importance, to systems such as autonomous vehicles and process control systems where the system availability is vital. It is clear that fault diagnosis is becoming an important subject in modern control theory and practice. Robust Model-Based Fault Diagnosis for Dynamic Systems presents the subject of model-based fault diagnosis in a unified framework. It contains many important topics and methods; however, total coverage and completeness is not the primary concern. The book focuses on fundamental issues such as basic definitions, residual generation methods and the importance of robustness in model-based fault diagnosis approaches. In this book, fault diagnosis concepts and methods are illustrated by either simple academic examples or practical applications. The first two chapters are of tutorial value and provide a starting point for newcomers to this field.The rest of the book presents the state of the art in model-based fault diagnosis by discussing many important robust approaches and their applications. This will certainly appeal to experts in this field. Robust Model-Based Fault Diagnosis for Dynamic Systems targets both newcomers who want to get into this subject, and experts who are concerned with fundamental issues and are also looking for inspiration for future research. The book is useful for both researchers in academia and professional engineers in industry because both theory and applications are discussed. Although this is a research monograph, it will be an important text for postgraduate research students world-wide. The largest market, however, will be academics, libraries and practicing engineers and scientists throughout the world.

"SAFEPROCESS '97" was the third in this major IFAC symposia series and covered a wide range of theoretical and application studies concerned with the reliability, availability and safety of controlled systems.

The goal of the symposium was to bring together experts from different fields to give an overview of the state-of-the-art, present new research results and show future developments. In addition, there was special emphasis on industrial requirements for FDI (fault detection and isolation) and a new session on the human factors aspects of system monitoring and safety that reflects the growing interest in this area.

These proceedings contain the 209 papers presented at the symposium and comprise: plenary overviews; state-of-the-art reviews and surveys; the very latest results; and tutorial papers.