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...