Using clear tutorial examples, this fullyupdated new edition concentrates on explaining and illustrating the concepts that are at the heart of control theory. It seeks to develop a robust understanding of the underlying principles around which the control subject is built. This simple framework is studded with references to more detailed treatments and with interludes that are intended to inform and entertain. The book is intended as a companion on the journey through control theory and although the early chapters concentrate on fundamental ideas such as feedback and stability, later chapters deal with more advanced topics such as state variables, optimisation, estimation, Kalman filtering and robust control. This would would appeal to undergraduates in a variety of disciplines seeking to learn the basics of control and is also relevant to economists, scientists, engineers (academic or industrial) and electrical and control engineers. Contents Acknowledgements xix Foreword by Professor Karl ?str?m xxi Introduction xxiii The structure, content and purpose of the book xxiii Some historical threads in the development of control systems technology xxv 1. Control concepts: a non-mathematical introduction 2. Control design ideas: a non-mathematical treatment 3. Synthesis of automatic feedback control loops: a more quantitative view 4. How the Laplace transform greatly simplifi es system representation and manipulation 5. Frequency response methods 6. Mathematical modelling 7. Non-linear systems 8. Limits to performance 9. Some practical aspects of control design, implementation and justifi cation 10. Discrete time and digital control systems 11. Multivariable linear systems and the state space approach 12. Links between state space and classical viewpoints 13. Optimisation 14. State estimal#A