Control of Dead-time Processes

Prof. Julio E. Normey-Rico is with the Automation and Systems Department of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. He has been teaching Linear Systems and Classical Control in the Electrical and Automation and Control undergraduate courses since 1990. Since that date, he has also taught Multivariable Process Control and Digital Control in the MSc Program. Since 2000 he has taught Predictive Control and Dead-time System Control in the PhD program of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. He has been a visiting professor for the PhD programs of the Universities of Seville, Carlos III de Madrid and Seville in Spain. He has authored and co-authored more than a 60 technical papers in international journals and conference proceedings. He has carried out review work for various conferences and technical journals. His main areas of research are process control, dead-time processes and industrial applications. Professor Eduardo F. Camacho is Professor of the Department of System Engineering and Automatic Control at the University of Seville. His previous publications include the books: Model Predictive Control in the Process Industry (1995), Advanced Control of Solar Plants (1997) and Model Predictive Control (1999 and 2/e 20004) all published by Springer and Control e Instrumentacion de Procesos Quimicos published by Ed. Sintesis. He has authored and co-authored more than a 150 technical papers in international journals and conference proceedings. Eduardo Camacho has served on various IFAC technical committees and was a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE/CSS appointed by the president for 2001. He served as Chair of the IFAC Publication Committee from 2002-2005. At present he is the chair of the IEEE/CSS International Affairs Committee, Chair of the IFAC Policy Committee and President of the European Control Association He has carried out review and editorial work for various conferences and technical journals. At present he is one of the editors of the IFAC journal, Control Engineering Practice, and an associate editor of the European Journal of Control. He was Publication Chair for the IFAC World Congress in Barcelona in 2002 and the General Chair of the joint Conference on Decision and Control /European Control Conference (CDC/ECC) in December 2005. Professor Camacho has acted as evaluator of projects at national and European level. He was appointed for four years Manager of the Advanced Production Technology Program of the Spanish National R&D Program. He was one of the Spanish representatives on the Program Committee of the Growth Research program and is now acting as expert for the Program Committee of the NMP research priority of the European Union.

• Dead-time Processes.- Identification of Dead-time Processes.- PID Control of Dead-time Processes.- The Smith Predictor.- Dead-time Compensators for Stable Plants.- Dead-time Compensators for Unstable Plants.- Discrete Dead-time Compensators.- Model Predictive Control of Dead-time Processes.- Robust Predictive Control of Dead-time Processes.- Multivariable Dead-time Compensation.- Robust MPC for MIMO Dead-time Processes.- Control of Nonlinear Dead-time Processes.- Prediction for Control.

From the reviews: This treatment is a welcome addition to the literature, especially for those who are interested in learning the prevailing methods and practices of process control. The authors have made a commendable effort to keep the required background to a minimum. Indeed, anyone with a background in linear systems and discrete-time systems from a typical engineering curriculum should be able to follow this book. The book contains a generous number of practical examples. For most methods discussed, Matlab codes are also given. Heuristic reasoning and simulation illustrations are often used to motivate critical ideas. Many practical issues are also discussed. These features make the book especially appealing to thos with an interst in immediate application. The material is well organized and nicely presented. The editorial quality is high with very few mistakes for a first edition. My only complaint is the authors' tendency in a few places to use a sequence of two letters such as na, to represent a single variable, which is inconsistent with the practice in most parts of the book, where the more traditional form of one letter with subscript, such as na, is used. Overall, this book is a pleasure to read for both beginners and experts. The book is suitable as a textbook for a graduate level course or as a reference for practicing engineers. The first eight chapters can be considered as a textbook for a final year undergraduate course. IEEE Control Systems Magazine October (2008) 136 - 137 (Reviewer: Keqin Gu)