Fundamentals of Automatic Control

Control Engineering plays a fundamental role in modern technological systems. One of the main aims of this book is to contribute to the development of skills and attitudes within readers and students that will better equip them to face the challenges of real-world design problems. The central theme of this book is continuous-time control; however we also treat digital control, because most modern control systems will usually be implemented on some form of computer hardware. This approach inevitably led to a book of larger volume than originally intended, but one with the advantage of providing a comprehensive treatment within an integrated framework. Naturally, there remain specialized topics that are not covered in the book; however, we trust that we provide a sufficiently strong foundation so that the reader can comfortably turn to the study of appropriate complementary literature. This book was prepared for students in mechanical, electrical and mechatronics engineering. However, it is also intended to be a practical textbook for those engineers in industry who find themselves involved in a project dealing with control systems.