Fractional-order Systems and Controls details the use of fractional calculus (calculus of non-integer order) in the description and modeling of systems, and in a range of control design and practical applications. It is largely self-contained, covering the fundamentals of fractional calculus together with some analytical and numerical techniques and providing MATLAB^(R) codes for the simulation of fractional-order control (FOC) systems (available by download from www.springer.com/ISBN).

The use of fractional calculus can improve and generalize well-established...

Control Theory is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and mathematics that studies the behavior of dynamic systems with external stimuli and how to modify such behavior through feedback, and the very concept of dynamic system implies the study of how the trajectories of a point in a geometric space evolve in time. Thus, time is at the very foundation of control theory, and its development and achievements are conditioned both by the conception we have of it and by our way of measuring and using it. Following a quasi-chronological order, this work aims to give an overview of how these...