Control Systems

Digital Control Systems

The extraordinary development of digital computers (microprocessors, microcontrollers) and their extensive use in control systems in all fields of applications has brought about important changes in the design of control systems. Their performance and their low cost make them suitable for use in control systems of various kinds which demand far better capabilities and performances than those provided by analog controllers. However, in order really to take advantage of the capabilities of microprocessors, it is not enough to reproduce the behavior of analog (PID) controllers. One needs to implement specific and high-performance model based control techniques developed for computer-controlled systems (techniques that have been extensively tested in practice). In this context identification of a plant dynamic model from data is a fundamental step in the design of the control system. The book takes into account the fact that the association of books with software and on-line material is radically changing the teaching methods of the control discipline. Despite its interactive character, computer-aided control design software requires the understanding of a number of concepts in order to be used efficiently. The use of software for illustrating the various concepts and algorithms helps understanding and rapidly gives a feeling of the various phenomena.

Networked Control Systems

This book nds its origin in the WIDE PhD School on Networked Control Systems, which we organized in July 2009 in Siena, Italy. Having gathered experts on all the aspects of networked control systems, it was a small step to go from the summer school to the book, certainly given the enthusiasm of the lecturers at the school. We felt that a book collecting overviewson the important developmentsand open pr- lems in the eld of networked control systems could stimulate and support future research in this appealing area. Given the tremendouscurrentinterests in distributed control exploiting wired and wireless communication networks, the time seemed to be right for the book that lies now in front of you. The goal of the book is to set out the core techniques and tools that are ava- able for the modeling, analysis and design of networked control systems. Roughly speaking, the book consists of three parts. The rst part presents architectures for distributed control systems and models of wired and wireless communication n- works. In particular, in the rst chapter important technological and architectural aspects on distributed control systems are discussed. The second chapter provides insight in the behavior of communication channels in terms of delays, packet loss and information constraints leading to suitable modeling paradigms for commu- cation networks.

Control Systems