This book is an ambitious attempt to bridge the infamous gap between theory and practice in control. The book has ten chapters, written by seasoned researchers from all over the world. It is organized in four parts: Large-scale Problems, Aerospace, Vision and Sound and Electromechanical, and covers a very wide range of problems from chemical reactors to magnetic bearings. In spite of the wide diversity of topics and authors a coherent presentation is obtained by a uniform organization imposed by the editors. Each chapter begins with a brief summary of the theory and a - scription of the application, followed by results of simulations or experiments and conclusions. The problem descriptions and the discussions about the relevance of the theory are more detailed than presentations normally found in papers. The book is a nice complement to traditional textbooks and the wide range of topics illustrate the richness and ubiquity of identi?cation and control. Santa Barbara, California, USA KarlJohanÅström March 2007 Preface System theory, in particular, automatic control and system identi?cation have ex- rienced a fast evolution in the past decades. Many new methods have been dev- oped, performance requirements in traditional engineering areas have signi?cantly increased and new and more demanding applications in other areas of engineering and science have appeared. Many textbooks have been written that present the r- evant theory and sometimes "practical" examples to which the theory has been - plied.
About the Author: Ricardo S. Sánchez Peña has worked for several research institutions in Argentina (CITEFA, CNIE, CNEA) and since 2004 he has worked at the Advanced Control Systems group, Polytechnic University of Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain), first as a Ramon y Cajal fellow and presently as ICREA research professor. His research interests are in the applications of robust identification and control to practical problems.
He has been invited as a researcher by the German Space Agency (DLR, May/Aug'79), CalTech (Jun/Jul'89), the Interdisciplinary Center for Applied Mathematics (ICAM) at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Aug/Sept'91), and the Electrical Engineering Department of Pennsylvania State University (Dec'94andJul'96). He lectured courses at the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics of Purdue University (Feb/Mar'01) as Visiting Full Professor, at DISA-Polytechnic University of Valencia (Jun/Jul'02) and seminars at UNED (Madrid), the Polytechnic University of Catalunya (Jul'02) and the Universidad Mayor (Uruguay'93).
Doctor Sánchez Peña is the author of Introducción a la Teoría de Control Robusto (AADECA, 1992, 2nd.Ed. 1999), winner of the 1991 Book contest organized by the argentine IFAC representative, and co-author (with Dr. Mario Sznaier) of Robust Systems Theory and Applications (John Wiley and Sons 1998) and the Robust Systems chapter in the CRC Electrical Engineering Handbook (1999). He has authored around 100 journal and conference papers. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Control Science and Engineering. He is a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics, Senior Member of IEEE and AIAA, member of the Policy Committee of IFAC and of the Independent Review Team of the NASA/CONAE satellite Aquarius/SAC-D. He participated as a Technical expert in UNMOVIC (UnitedNations) during 2001 and 2002 and was also argentine representative at the Technical Experts Meetings for the MTCR from 2000 to 2004.
Professor Joseba Quevedo Casín has published 2 books, 7 chapters in books (published by Springer-Verlag and Elsevier) and more than 25 articles in international and national journals (IEE Intelligent Systems Engineering, Control Engineering Practice and Computing and Control Engineering Journal). He has made more than 80 presentations in international and national Congresses, Conferences and Workshops and has participated in 5 international committees and representations as a member or President. Joseba Quevedo Casín has organized 3 international research and development activities (Workshops or Vacation Schools) and presently he is Project Assessor of the Science and Technology Commission of the Spanish government.
Professor Vicenç Puig teaches "Automatic Control" and "Computer Control" in the Industrial Engineering degree at Barcelona Industrial Engineering School and "Optimization and Optimal Control" in the Automatic Engineering degree at Terrassa Industrial Engineering School. He has also been responsible for the PhD Program in "Control, Vision and Robotics" of UPC since 2002. He also teaches in the PhD program "Fault Diagnosis and Fault Tolerant Control in Industrial Processes" and is responsible of the Doctoral Spanish School in Fault Diagnosis that has started this year as an inter University PhD program. He is also the leader of the "Control and Supervision" group that belongs to the "Advanced Control Systems" line of research directed by Professor Joseba Quevedo.
