These Proceedings provide valuable information on the exchange of ideas between scientists who apply nonlinear programming and optimization to real world control problems and those who develop new methods, algorithms and software. The papers deal with windshear problems, optimization of aircraft and spacecraft trajectories, optimal control for robots, the optimization of urban traffic control, general mechanical systems, multilevel inventory systems and robust control.

In the last two decades, the development of specific methodologies for the control of systems described by nonlinear mathematical models has attracted an ever increasing interest. New breakthroughs have occurred which have aided the design of nonlinear control systems. However there are still limitations which must be understood, some of which were addressed at the IFAC Symposium in Capri. The emphasis was on the methodological developments, although a number of the papers were concerned with the presentation of applications of nonlinear design philosophies to actual control problems in chemical, electrical and mechanical engineering.

Focusing on basic aspects of future reusable space transportation systems and covering overall design, aerodynamics, thermodynamics, flight dynamics, propulsion, materials, and structures, this report presents some of the most recent results obtained in these disciplines. The authors are members of three Collaborative Research Centers in Aachen, Munich and Stuttgart concerned with hypersonic vehicles. A major part of the research presented here deals with experimental and numerical aerodynamic topics ranging from low speed to hypersonic flow past the external configuration and through inlet and nozzle. Mathematicians and engineers jointly worked on aspects of flight mechanics like trajectory optimization, stability, control and flying qualities. Structural research and development was predominantly coupled to the needs for high temperature resistant structures for space vehicles.

This book contains the proceedings ofthe meeting on "Applied Mathematics in the Aerospace Field," held in Erice, Sicily, Italy from September 3 to September 10, 1991. The occasion of the meeting was the 12th Course of the School of Mathematics "Guido Stampacchia," directed by Professor Franco Giannessi of the University of Pisa. The school is affiliated with the International Center for Scientific Culture "Ettore Majorana," which is directed by Professor Antonino Zichichi of the University of Bologna. The objective of the course was to give a perspective on the state-of the-art and research trends concerning the application of mathematics to aerospace science and engineering. The course was structured with invited lectures and seminars concerning fundamental aspects of differential equa tions, mathematical programming, optimal control, numerical methods, per turbation methods, and variational methods occurring in flight mechanics, astrodynamics, guidance, control, aircraft design, fluid mechanics, rarefied gas dynamics, and solid mechanics. The book includes 20 chapters by 23 contributors from the United States, Germany, and Italy and is intended to be an important reference work on the application of mathematics to the aerospace field. It reflects the belief of the course directors that strong interaction between mathematics and engineering is beneficial, indeed essential, to progresses in both areas.

These Proceedings provide a general overview as well as detailed information on the developing field of reliability and safety of technical processes in automatically controlled processes. The plenary papers present the state-of-the-art and an overview in the areas of aircraft and nuclear power stations, because these safety-critical system domains possess the most highly developed fault management and supervision schemes. Additional plenary papers covered the recent developments in analytical redundancy. In total there are 95 papers presented in these Proceedings.

Finding an alternative to supplement military ways of resolving international conflicts has been taken up by many people skilled in various areas such as political science, economics, social studies, modelling and simulation, artificial intelligence and expert systems, military strategy and weaponry as well as private business and industry. The Workshop will therefore be of use as it looks at various control methods which would create a conciliatory social and political environment or climate for seeking and obtaining non-military solutions to international conflicts and to solutions to national conflicts which may lead to international conflicts.

The focus of the workshop was on recent advances in the theory, applications and techniques for distributed computer control systems. Topics included: tools and methods for inner layers of DCCS; application papers presenting operational DCCS; the infiltration of true real-time or "time critical" concepts and the emergence of artificial intelligence methods in DCCS applications, leading to novel computer architectures being integrated in computer networks. The book will be of interest not only to those involved in DCCS but also software engineers and distributed computing scientists.