The tandem cold rolling of metal strip is a large, highly complex nonlinear multivariable process the control of which poses a significant engineering challenge. Existing controllers have proven to be susceptible to disturbances and uncertainties in process variables and attempts to increase robustness to these phenomena have had their own drawbacks so a new approach is needed.

Tandem Cold Metal Rolling Mill Control deals primarily with a novel and practical advanced method for control of tandem cold metal rolling processes based on the recently emerging state-dependent...

Tracking of autonomous vehicles and the high-precision positioning of robotic manipulators require advanced modeling techniques and control algorithms. Controller design should take into account any model nonlinearities.

Nonlinear Control of Vehicles and Robots develops a unified approach to the dynamic modeling of robots in terrestrial, aerial and marine environments. To begin with, the main classes of nonlinear systems and stability methods are summarized. Basic nonlinear control methods useful in manipulator and vehicle control - linearization, backstepping, sliding-mode...

Motion Coordination for VTOL Unmanned Aerial Vehicles develops new control design techniques for the distributed coordination of a team of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles. In particular, it provides new control design approaches for the attitude synchronization of a formation of rigid body systems. In addition, by integrating new control design techniques with some concepts from nonlinear control theory and multi-agent systems, it presents a new theoretical framework for the formation control of a class of under-actuated aerial vehicles capable of vertical take-off and landing....

Drives and Control for Industrial Automation presents the material necessary for an understanding of servo control in automation. Beginning with a macroscopic view of its subject, treating drives and control as parts of a single system, the book then pursues a detailed discussion of the major components of servo control: sensors, controllers and actuators. Throughout, the mechatronic approach - a synergistic integration of the components - is maintained, in keeping with contemporary practice.

The authors' holistic approach does not preclude the reader from learning in a...

Integral processes with dead time are frequently encountered in the process industry; typical examples include supply chains, level control and batch distillation columns. Special attention must be paid to their control because they lack asymptotic stability (they are not self-regulating) and because of their delays. As a result, many techniques have been devised to cope with these hurdles both in the context of single-degree-of-freedom (proportional-integral-differential (PID)) and two-degree-of-freedom control schemes.

Control of Integral Processes with Dead Time provides...

Case Studies in Control presents a framework to facilitate the use of advanced control concepts in real systems based on two decades of research and over 150 successful applications for industrial end-users from various backgrounds. In successive parts the text approaches the problem of putting the theory to work from both ends, theoretical and practical. The first part begins with a stress on solid control theory and the shaping of that theory to solve particular instances of practical problems. It emphasizes the need to establish by experiment whether a model-derived solution will...

Structured Controllers for Uncertain Systems focuses on the development of easy-to-use design strategies for robust low-order or fixed-structure controllers (particularly the industrially ubiquitous PID controller). These strategies are based on a recently-developed stochastic optimization method termed the "Heuristic Kalman Algorithm" (HKA) the use of which results in a simplified methodology that enables the solution of the structured control problem without a profusion of user-defined parameters. An overview of the main stochastic methods employable in the context of continuous...

The Internet plays a significant and growing role in real-time industrial manufacturing, scheduling and management. A considerable research effort has led to the development of new technologies that make it possible to use the Internet for supervision and control of industrial processes.

Internet-based Control Systems addresses the challenges that need to be overcome before the Internet can be beneficially used not only for monitoring of but also remote control industrial plants. New design issues such as requirement specification, architecture selection and user-interface...