Leading academic and industrial researchers working with adaptive systems and signal processing have been given the opportunity to exchange ideas, concepts and solutions at the IFAC Symposia on Adaptive Systems in Control and Signal Processing. This postprint volume contains all those papers which were presented at the 5th IFAC Symposium in Budapest in 1995. The technical program was composed of a number of invited and contributed sessions and a special case study session, providing a good balance between applications and theory oriented papers.

Adaptive Systems have been studied for a substantial period as the logical intersection between modelling and design in control and signal processing. Because of this, adaptive systems studies need to live in these two worlds while introducing concepts of their own. These reflect the requirements to track significant system variations or to eliminate initial parameter uncertainty, all the while maintaining satisfactory transient performance. Historically, Adaptive Systems (and notably Adaptive Control) have been the subject of takeover bids by neighbouring tribes from fields such as gain-scheduling, identification, robust design or nonlinear systems. The response to this has been to add impetus to the understanding of the connections between these disciplines and adaptation, leading in turn to improvements of theory and practice. We would appear to be currently in a period where there are increasing contacts being made with fields such as Learning Systems, Computer Architectures and Identification. Rather than hostile takeovers, these have helped to expand the capability of Adaptive systems dramatically. In this IFAC Workshop on Adaptive control and Signal Processing, a wide range of papers expressing the large number of fronts on which adaptive systems are developing has been drawn together.

Control of Solar Energy Systems details the main solar energy systems, problems involved with their control, and how control systems can help in increasing their efficiency. Thermal energy systems are explored in depth, as are photovoltaic generation and other solar energy applications such as solar furnaces and solar refrigeration systems. This second and updated edition of Advanced Control of Solar Plants includes new material on: solar towers and solar tracking; heliostat calibration, characterization and offset correction; solar radiation, estimation, prediction, and computation; and integrated control of solar plants. This new edition contains worked examples in the text as well as proposed exercises and simulation models and so will be of great use to the student and academic, as well as the industrial practitioner.

The series Advances in Industrial Control aims to report and encourage technology transfer in control engineering. The rapid development of control technology impacts all areas of the control discipline. New theory, new controllers, actuators, sensors, new industrial processes, computer methods, new applications, new philosophies ... , new challenges. Much of this development work resides in industrial reports, feasibility study papers and the reports of advanced collaborative projects. The series offers an opportunity for researchers to present an extended exposition of such new work in all aspects of industrial control for wider and rapid dissemination. This volume by Professor Eduardo F. Camacho and his colleagues Manuel Berenguel and Francisco R. Rubio is an exemplar of what an Advances in Industrial Control monograph should be. In it the control of a thermal solar facility is used to study the performance obtainable from an interesting range of control algorithms. These methods range from the conventional PID controller, through to model-based predictive and robust optimal control methods and finishing with two fuzzy logic based control techniques. The scientific methodology applied is modelling, simulation and plant implementation. In the last chapter, a rigorous approach for a comparative study is described involving a careful selection of performance metrics. The text is rich in relevant up-to-date source material, and contains many thought-provoking comments. The presentation is well-balanced, impartial and very readable.

These volumes are part of Encyclopedia of Water Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. The two volumes present state-of-the art subject matter of various aspects of History, Development and Management of Water Resources These volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College Students Educators, Professional Practitioners, Research Personnel and Policy and Decision Makers.

Application of advanced computer-oriented techniques are necessary in the synthesis, design analysis and operation of a complex integrated plant to produce power and freshwater, by desalting seawater or brackish water, at higher efficiency and lower cost. These are the two vital commodities to maintains sustainability of life, particularly in the arid regions where natural freshwater supply is either totally lacking or has become scarce. Even in the regions with polluted water resources, such a system is required to support life. At the same time, the available energy should be put to maximum use and life-cycle analysis is essential to ensure sustainability of the systems. The contributors of this book, experts in their own respective fields, outline the various techniques enriched by their experience. The contents of the book would, therefore, be of great interest not only to designers and operators of dual-purpose power-desalination plants but also to educators and researchers as well serve as a valuable source of information to those engaged in other areas of processing industry. The book is motivated by the growing importance of integrated power and desalination plants in general and in their respective regions in particular, and the long felt need for an authoritative book on the subject. After a long gap of more than two decades following the publication of "Principles of Desalination" Spiegler and Laird in 1980, this book would be a welcome addition to the literature in the field to serve as a valuable guide and reference to all those who are concerned with the integration of power and desalination plants. It will also serve as a valuable source of information to those in the processing industry in general.