Control systems design methodologies have long suffered the traditional and myopic dichotomy between time and frequency domain approaches, each of them being specialized to cope with only scarcely overlapping performance requirements. This book is aimed at bridging the two approaches by presenting design methodologies based on the minimization of a norm (H2/H() of a suitable transfer function. A distinctive feature of these techniques is the fact that they do not create only one solution to the design problem, instead they provide a whole set of admissible solutions which satisfy a...

From the reviews: "The style of the book reflects the author's wish to assist in the effective learning of optimal control by suitable choice of topics, the mathematical level used, and by including numerous illustrated examples. . . .In my view the book suits its function and purpose, in that it gives a student a comprehensive coverage of optimal control in an easy-to-read fashion." -Measurement and Control

This book provides an introductory yet rigorous treatment of Pontryagin s Maximum Principle and its application to optimal control problems when simple and complex constraints act on state and control variables, the two classes of variable in such problems. The achievements resulting from first-order variational methods are illustrated with reference to a large number of problems that, almost universally, relate to a particular second-order, linear and time-invariant dynamical system, referred to as the double integrator. The book is ideal for students who have some knowledge of the basics...