Control Theory Fundamentals

Book excerpt: The book Control Theory Fundamentals was compiled from the materials of a popular series of industrial seminars in control theory. The principal objective of the seminar was to present the fundamentals of control theory in a way accessible to practising engineers whose principal area of expertise often lay elsewhere. In addition to providing a resource for those attending the seminar, the book will be of interest to the wider audience of students and engineers who need to apply control theory in the course of their studies or work. The book provides a readable introduction to control of both continuous time and discrete time systems. The first four chapters of the book cover classical methods using transfer functions, while the remaining chapters cover analysis and design using state space methods. Worked examples are included to illustrate key topics in each section. The book contains five appendices; a review of matrix algebra, reference tables of Laplace and z transforms, supporting Matlab scripts, and a case study in controller design using state space methods.