The area of hybrid dynamical systems (HDS) represents a difficult and exciting challenge to control engineers and is referred to as "the control theory of tomorrow" because of its future potential for solving problems. This relatively new discipline bridges control engineering, mathematics, and computer science. There is now an emerging literature on this topic describing a number of mathematical models, heuristic algorithms, and stability criteria. However, presently there is no systematic theory of HDS. "Hybrid Dynamical Systems" focuses on a comprehensive development of HDS theory and integrates results established by the authors.

The work is a self-contained informative text/reference, covering several theoretically interesting and practically significant problems concerning the use of switched controllers and examining the sensor scheduling problem. The emphasis is on classes of uncertain systems as models for HDS.

Features and topics:

* Focuses on the design of robust HDS in a logical and clear manner

* Applies the hybrid control systems framework to two classical robust control problems: design of an optimal stable controller for a linear system and simultaneous stabilization of a collection of plants

* Presents a detailed treatment of stability and H-infinity control problems for a class of HDS

* Covers recent original results with complete mathematically rigorous proofs

Researchers and postgraduate students in control engineering, applied mathematics, and theoretical computer science will find this book covers the latest results on this important area of research. Advanced engineering practitioners and applied researchers working in areas of controlengineering, signal processing, communications, and fault detection will find this book an up-to-date resource.

Kalman filter, particle filter, IMM, PDA, ITS, random sets... The number of useful object-tracking methods is exploding. But how are they related? How do they help track everything from aircraft, missiles and extra-terrestrial objects to people and lymphocyte cells? How can they be adapted to novel applications? Fundamentals of Object Tracking tells you how. Starting with the generic object-tracking problem, it outlines the generic Bayesian solution. It then shows systematically how to formulate the major tracking problems - maneuvering, multiobject, clutter, out-of-sequence sensors - within this Bayesian framework and how to derive the standard tracking solutions. This structured approach makes very complex object-tracking algorithms accessible to the growing number of users working on real-world tracking problems and supports them in designing their own tracking filters under their unique application constraints. The book concludes with a chapter on issues critical to successful implementation of tracking algorithms, such as track initialization and merging.

This book is primarily a research monograph that presents in a unified man ner some recent research on a class of hybrid dynamical systems (HDS). The book is intended both for researchers and advanced postgraduate stu dents working in the areas of control engineering, theoretical computer science, or applied mathematics and with an interest in the emerging field of hybrid dynamical systems. The book assumes competence in the basic mathematical techniques of modern control theory. The material presented in this book derives from a period of fruitful research collaboration between the authors that began in 1994 and is still ongoing. Some of the material contained herein has appeared as isolated results in journal papers and conference proceedings. This work presents this material in an integrated and coherent manner and also presents many new results. Much of the material arose from joint work with students and colleagues, and the authors wish to acknowledge the major contributions made by Ian Petersen, Efstratios Skafidas, Valery Ugrinovskii, David Cook, Iven Mareels, and Bill Moran. There is currently no precise definition of a hybrid dynamical system; however, in broad terms it is a dynamical system that involves a mixture of discrete-valued and continuous-valued variables. Since the early 1990s, a bewildering array of results have appeared under the umbrella of HDS, ranging from the analysis of elementary on-off control systems to sophis ticated mathematical logic-based descriptions of large real-time software systems.