This volume collects recent advances in nonlinear delay systems, with an emphasis on constructive generalized Lyapunov and predictive approaches that certify stability properties. The book is written by experts in the field and includes two chapters by Miroslav Krstic, to whom this volume is dedicated. This volume is suitable for all researchers in mathematics and engineering who deal with nonlinear delay control problems and students who would like to understand the current state of the art in the control of nonlinear delay systems.

The authors have developed a methodology for control of nonlinear systems in the presence of long delays, with large and rapid variation in the actuation or sensing path, or in the presence of long delays affecting the internal state of a system. In addition to control synthesis, they introduce tools to quantify the performance and the robustness properties of the designs provided in the book. The book is based on the concept of predictor feedback and infinite-dimensional backstepping transformation for linear systems and the authors guide the reader from the basic ideas of the concept?with constant delays only on the input?all the way through to nonlinear systems with state-dependent delays on the input as well as on system states. Readers will find the book useful because the authors provide elegant and systematic treatments of long-standing problems in delay systems, such as systems with state-dependent delays that arise in many applications. In addition, the authors give all control designs by explicit formulae, making the book especially useful for engineers who have faced delay-related challenges and are concerned with actual implementations and they accompany all control designs with Lyapunov-based analysis for establishing stability and performance guarantees.

This book mostly results from a selection of papers presented during the 11th IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Workshop on Time-Delay Systems, which took place in Grenoble, France, February 4 - 6, 2013. During this event, 37 papers were presented. Taking into account the reviewers' evaluation and the papers' presentation the best papers have been selected and collected into the present volume. The authors of 13 selected papers were invited to participate to this book and provided a more detailed and improved version of the conference paper. To enrich the book, three more chapters have been included from specialists on time-delay systems who presented their work during the 52nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, which held in December 10 - 13, 2013, at Florence, Italy. The content of the book is divided into four main parts as follows: Modeling, Stability analysis, Stabilization and control, and Input-delay systems. Focusing on various topics of time-delay systems, this book will be interesting for researchers and graduate students working on control and system theory.

This brief focuses on the structural properties of nonlinear time-delay systems. It provides a link between coverage of fundamental theoretical properties and advanced control algorithms, as well as suggesting a path for the generalization of the differential geometric approach to time-delay systems . The brief begins with an introduction to a class of single-input nonlinear time-delay systems. It then focuses on geometric methods treating them and offers a geometric framework for integrability. The book has chapters dedicated to the accessibility and observability of nonlinear time-delay systems, allowing readers to understand the systems in a well-ordered, structured way. Finally, the brief concludes with applications of integrability and the control of single-input time-delay systems. This brief employs exercises and examples to familiarize readers with the time-delay context. It is of interest to researchers, engineers and postgraduate students who work in the area of nonlinear control systems.

Although the last decade has witnessed significant advances in control theory for finite and infinite dimensional systems, the stability and control of time-delay systems have not been fully investigated. Many problems exist in this field that are still unresolved, and there is a tendency for the numerical methods available either to be too general or too specific to be applied accurately across a range of problems. This monograph brings together the latest trends and new results in this field, with the aim of presenting methods covering a large range of techniques. Particular emphasis is placed on methods that can be directly applied to specific problems. The resulting book is one that will be of value to both researchers and practitioners.

This treatment of modern topics related to the control of nonlinear systems is a collection of contributions celebrating the work of Professor Henk Nijmeijer and honoring his 60th birthday. It addresses several topics that have been the core of Professor Nijmeijer’s work, namely: the control of nonlinear systems, geometric control theory, synchronization, coordinated control, convergent systems and the control of underactuated systems. The book presents recent advances in these areas, contributed by leading international researchers in systems and control. In addition to the theoretical questions treated in the text, particular attention is paid to a number of applications including (mobile) robotics, marine vehicles, neural dynamics and mechanical systems generally. This volume provides a broad picture of the analysis and control of nonlinear systems for scientists and engineers with an interest in the interdisciplinary field of systems and control theory. The reader will benefit from the expert participants’ ideas on important open problems with contributions that represent the state of the art in nonlinear control.

Since delays are present in 99% of industrial processes, Control Strategy for Time-delay Systems covers all the important features of real-world practical applications which will be valuable to practicing engineers and specialists The book presents the views of the editors on promising research directions and future industrial applications in this area. Although the fundamentals of time-delay systems are discussed, the book focuses on the advanced modelling and control of such systems and will provide the analysis and test (or simulation) results of nearly every technique described in the book For this purpose, highly complex models are introduced to ?describe the mentioned new applications which are characterized by ?time-varying delays with intermittent and stochastic nature, several types of nonlinearities, and the presence ?of different time-scales. Researchers, practitioners and PhD students will gain insights into the prevailing trends in design and operation of real-time control systems, reviewing the shortcomings and future developments concerning the practical system issues such as standardization, protection and design.