This book contains a collection of papers presented at the Fields Institute workshop, ``The Falling Cat and Related Problems,'' held in March 1992. The theme of the workshop was the application of methods from geometric mechanics and mathematical control theory to problems in the dynamics and control of freely rotating systems of coupled rigid bodies and related nonholonomic mechanical systems. This book will prove useful in providing insight into this new and exciting area of research.

This volume on mathematical control theory contains high quality articles covering the broad range of this field. The internationally renowned authors provide an overview of many different aspects of control theory, offering a historical perspective while bringing the reader up to the very forefront of current research.

At publication, The Control Handbook immediately became the definitive resource that engineers working with modern control systems required. Among its many accolades, that first edition was cited by the AAP as the Best Engineering Handbook of 1996. Now, 15 years later, William Levine has once again compiled the most comprehensive and authoritative resource on control engineering. He has fully reorganized the text to reflect the technical advances achieved since the last edition and has expanded its contents to include the multidisciplinary perspective that is making control engineering a critical component in so many fields. Now expanded from one to three volumes, The Control Handbook, Second Edition organizes cutting-edge contributions from more than 200 leading experts. The third volume, Control System Advanced Methods, includes design and analysis methods for MIMO linear and LTI systems, Kalman filters and observers, hybrid systems, and nonlinear systems. It also covers advanced considerations regarding — Stability Adaptive controls System identification Stochastic control Control of distributed parameter systems Networks and networked controls As with the first edition, the new edition not only stands as a record of accomplishment in control engineering but provides researchers with the means to make further advances. Progressively organized, the first two volumes in the set include: Control System Fundamentals Control System Applications

This volume contains selected papers presented at the Symposium on "Recent Developments in Non-linear Oscillations of Mechanical Systems", held in Hanoi, Vietnam, from 2 - 5 March 1999. This Symposium was initiated and sponsored by the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (lUI AM) and organised in conjunction with Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Ihe purpose of the Symposium was to bring together scientists active in different fields of oscillations with the aim to review the recent progress in theory of oscillations and engineering applications and to outline the prospects in its further achievements to then co-ordinate and direct research in this field to further co-operation between scientists and various scientific institutions. An International Scientific Committee was appointed by the Bureau of IUI AM with the following members: Nguyen Van Dao (Vietnam, Co-Chairman) E.J. Kreuzer (Germany, Co-Chairman) D.H. van Campen (The Netherlands) F.L. Chernousko (Russia) A.H. Nayfeh (U.S.A) Nguyen Xuan Hung (Vietnam) W.O. Schiehlen (Germany) J.M.T. Thompson (U.K) Y. Veda (Japan). This Committee selected the participants to be invited and the papers to be presented at the Symposium. As a result of this procedure, 52 active scientists from 16 countries responded to the invitation, and 42 papers were presented in lecture and poster discussion sessions.

Some of the modem developments described in Motion, Control, and Geometry include the geometric control of robot motion and craft orientation, how high-power precision micromotors are engineered for less invasive surgery and self-focusing lens applications, what a mobile robot on a surface has in common with one moving in three dimensions, and how the motion-control problem is simplified by a coupled oscillator's geometric grouping of degrees of freedom and motion time scales. The four papers in these proceedings provide a view through the scientific portal of today's motion-control geometric research into tomorrow's technology. The mathematics needed to carry out this research is that of modem differential geometry, and the questions raised in the field of motion-control geometry go directly to the research frontier. Geometry is a mathematical area too often neglected nowadays in a student's education. This publication will help adjust the control initially imposed about 2,300 years ago on one kind of "motion"- that of students entering Plato's Academy, where the following caveat was inscribed above the doorway: "Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here." Readers of these chapters will gain an appreciation of modem geometry and how it continues to play a crucial role in the context of motion control in cutting-edge science and technology.

Nonholonomic systems are a widespread topic in several scientific and commercial domains, including robotics, locomotion and space exploration. This work sheds new light on this interdisciplinary character through the investigation of a variety of aspects coming from several disciplines. The main aim is to illustrate the idea that a better understanding of the geometric structures of mechanical systems unveils new and unknown aspects to them, and helps both analysis and design to solve standing problems and identify new challenges. In this way, separate areas of research such as Classical Mechanics, Differential Geometry, Numerical Analysis or Control Theory are brought together in this study of nonholonomic systems.

At publication, The Control Handbook immediately became the definitive resource that engineers working with modern control systems required. Among its many accolades, that first edition was cited by the AAP as the Best Engineering Handbook of 1996. Now, 15 years later, William Levine has once again compiled the most comprehensive and authoritative resource on control engineering. He has fully reorganized the text to reflect the technical advances achieved since the last edition and has expanded its contents to include the multidisciplinary perspective that is making control engineering a critical component in so many fields. Now expanded from one to three volumes, The Control Handbook, Second Edition brilliantly organizes cutting-edge contributions from more than 200 leading experts representing every corner of the globe. They cover everything from basic closed-loop systems to multi-agent adaptive systems and from the control of electric motors to the control of complex networks. Progressively organized, the three volume set includes: Control System Fundamentals Control System Applications Control System Advanced Methods Any practicing engineer, student, or researcher working in fields as diverse as electronics, aeronautics, or biomedicine will find this handbook to be a time-saving resource filled with invaluable formulas, models, methods, and innovative thinking. In fact, any physicist, biologist, mathematician, or researcher in any number of fields developing or improving products and systems will find the answers and ideas they need. As with the first edition, the new edition not only stands as a record of accomplishment in control engineering but provides researchers with the means to make further advances.