Systems and Control, Introduction to

Control of dynamical systems has a long history: Watt's automatic centrifugal governor designed to regulate steam engines in the 1780s is considered a precursor of modern feedback control. Similarly, Bernoulli's work in the 1690s on the brachystochrone problem is a progenitor of optimal control. A distinguishing external feature of controlleddynamical systems is the presence of inputs that interact with the system in the form of deliberate controls, or unavoidable perturbations. Commonly control systems also have outputs (observations) that typically provide only incomplete information about the state of the system. Systems and control theory utilizes a broad array of mathematical disciplines – but a uniting, characteristic feature is the kind of questions being asked. In the 1950s the field became more formalized, it began to develop its own distinctive identity, and it has rapidly evolved ever since. Naturally, the linear theory developed first and quickly became a mature subject,...