The proposed book presents recent breakthroughs for the control of distributed parameter systems and follows on from a workshop devoted to this topic. It introduces new and unified visions of the challenging control problems raised by distributed parameter systems. The book collects contributions written by prominent international experts in the control community, addressing a wide variety of topics. It spans the full range from theoretical research to practical implementation and follows three traverse axes: emerging ideas in terms of control strategies (energy shaping, prediction-based control, numerical control, input saturation), theoretical concepts for interconnected systems (with potential non-linear actuation dynamics), advanced applications (cable-operated elevators, traffic networks), and numerical aspects. Cutting-edge experts in the field contributed in this volume, making it a valuable reference source for control practitioners, graduate students, and scientists researching practical and theoretical solutions to the challenging problems raised by distributed parameter systems.

The research detailed in this monograph was originally motivated by our interest in control problems involving partial and delay differential equations. Our attempts to apply control theory techniques to such prob lems in several areas of science convinced us that in the need for better and more detailed models of distributed/ continuum processes in biology and mechanics lay a rich, interesting, and challenging class of fundamen tal questions. These questions, which involve science and mathematics, are typical of those arising in inverse or parameter estimation problems. Our efforts on inverse problems for distributed parameter systems, which are infinite dimensional in the most common realizations, began about seven years ago at a time when rapid advances in computing capabilities and availability held promise for significant progress in the development of a practically useful as well as theoretically sound methodology for such problems. Much of the research reported in our presentation was not begun when we outlined the plans for this monograph some years ago. By publishing this monograph now, when only a part of the originally intended topics are covered (see Chapter VII in this respect), we hope to stimulate the research and interest of others in an area of scientific en deavor which has exceeded even our optimistic expectations with respect to excitement, opportunity, and stimulation. The computer revolution alluded to above and the development of new codes allow one to solve rather routinely certain estimation problems that would have been out of the question ten years ago.

This book presents new computational tools for the H? control of distributed parameter systems in which transfer functions are considered as input-output descriptions for the plants to be controlled. The emphasis is on the computation of the controller parameters and reliable implementation. The authors present recent studies showing that the simplified skew-Toeplitz method is applicable to a wide class of systems, supply detailed examples from systems with time delays and various engineering applications, and discuss reliable implementation of the controller, complemented by a software based on MATLAB. Frequency Domain Techniques for H? Control of Distributed Parameter Systems is intended for advanced undergraduate and early graduate students interested in robust control of distributed parameter systems?time delay systems?as well as researchers and engineers working in related fields. It can be used in the following courses: Introduction to Robust Control with Applications to Distributed Parameter Systems and Introduction to Robust Control with Applications to Time Delay Systems.

This book addresses controller and estimator design for systems that vary both spatially and in time: systems like fluid flow, acoustic noise and flexible structures. It includes coverage of the selection and placement of actuators and sensors for such distributed-parameter systems. The models for distributed parameter systems are coupled ordinary/partial differential equations. Approximations to the governing equations, often of very high order, are required and this complicates both controller design and optimization of the hardware locations. Control system and estimator performance depends not only on the controller/estimator design but also on the location of the hardware. In helping the reader choose the best location for actuators and sensors, the analysis provided in this book is crucial because neither intuition nor trial-and-error is foolproof, especially where multiple sensors and actuators are required, and moving hardware can be difficult and costly. The mechatronic approach advocated, in which controller design is integrated with actuator location, can lead to better performance without increased cost. Similarly, better estimation can be obtained with carefully placed sensors. The text shows how proper hardware placement varies depending on whether, disturbances are present, whether the response should be reduced to an initial condition or whether controllability and/or observability have to be optimized. This book is aimed at non-specialists interested in learning controller design for distributed-parameter systems and the material presented has been used for student teaching. The relevant basic systems theory is presented and followed by a description of controller synthesis using lumped approximations. Numerical algorithms useful for efficient implementation in real engineering systems and practical computational challenges are also described and discussed.