CMP Books, 2004. - 252 pages.
Designing a control system is a hard thing to do. To do it the "right" way, you must understand the mathematics of dynamic systems and control system design algorithms, which requires a strong background in calculus. What if you don't have this background and you find yourself working on a project that requires a control system design?
I wrote this book to answer that question. Recent advances in control system design software packages have placed the mathematics needed for control system design inside easy-to-use tools that can be applied by software developers who are not control engineers.
Using the techniques described in this book, embedded systems developers can design control systems with excellent performance characteristics. Mathematical derivations are avoided, making the methods accessible to developers with no background in control system engineering. The design approaches covered range from iterative experimental tuning procedures to advanced optimal control algorithms.
Although some of the design methods are mathematically complex, applying them need not be that difficult. It is only necessary for the user to understand the inputs required by a particular method and to provide them in a suitable form. For cases in which a controller design fails to produce satisfactory results, suggestions are provided for ways to adjust the inputs to enable the method to succeed. To compensate for the lack of mathematical rigor in the procedures, thorough testing of the resulting control system design is strongly advocated.
For the more advanced algorithms, this book demonstrates how to apply the best available software tools for control system design: MatLAB and its toolboxes. Toolboxes are add-ons to the basic MatLAB product that enhance its capabilities to perform specific tasks. The primary toolbox discussed here is the Control System Toolbox. Other add-ons to MatLAB also are covered, including the System Identification Toolbox, Simulink, and SimMechanics.