Essentials of Control Techniques and Theory

John Billingsley is Chair of Mechatronic Engineering at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba, Australia, and directs technology research in the National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture (NCEA).

• ESSENTIALS OF CONTROL TECHNIQUES—WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOWIntroduction: Control in a Nutshell, History, Theory, Art, and Practice. Modeling Time. Simulation with JavaScript "On-Line Learning Interactive Environment for Simulation" (Jollies)Introduction. Practical Control Systems. Adding Control. Frequency Domain Methods. Discrete Time Systems and Computer Control. Controlling an Inverted Pendulum.ESSENTIALS OF CONTROL THEORY—WHAT YOU OUGHT TO KNOWMore Frequency Domain Background Theory. More Frequency Domain Methods. The Root Locus. Fashionable Topics in Control. Linking the Time and Frequency Domains. Time, Frequency, and Convolution. More about Time and State Equations. Practical Observers, Feedback with Dynamics. Digital Control in More Detail. Relationship between z- and Other Transforms. Design Methods for Computer Control. Optimal Control—Nothing but the Best. Index.

…a valuable and much-needed demystification of control theory … The role of the blackboard is assumed by a well-matched and balanced Web site, on which JavaScript-based simulations of the book’s examples and experiments can be run (and rerun with changed parameters). … The complement of the lucid and reasoned thinking out loud is, along with coherent excerpts of JavaScript, in the hard copy. … Forgetting for the moment that this is an intrinsically excellent book, it is also the right control theory book at the right time. … This book has my highest recommendation among control theory books.—George Hacken, Computing Reviews, August 2010This book contains some basic notions and techniques from the control theory presented from the point of view of an engineer. Special attention is paid to the classical frequency-domain methods, practical observers, and different principles of controller design. Using the author's own Javascript On-Line Learning Interactive Environment for Simulation (Jollies), the design and modeling of various control systems is explained step-by-step (as the inverted pendulum). ... The book contains a large number of illustrative examples (including the corresponding Javascript codes and simulation results) helping to understand the application of the control theory to design of working controllers. … very useful as a complementary reading for a course in control theory.— Mikhail I. Krastanov, in Zentralblatt MATH, 1198-1