Nonlinear Control Systems

In the rapidly evolving landscape of nonlinear control systems, this reprint stands as a beacon of knowledge, showcasing the remarkable progress made over the last few decades. With a focus on design methodologies and their applications, this text employs various mathematical tools to address the myriad challenges inherent in nonlinearly controlled systems. This reprint extends its reach beyond traditional boundaries, presenting applications of nonlinear control across diverse fields such as energy, health care, robotics, biology, and big data research. As technology continues to advance, nonlinear control emerges as a critical player in shaping the future of theory and technology adoption across these domains. Despite the wealth of the existing literature, synthesizing control strategies for a broader class of nonlinear systems, especially those integrated with emerging technologies in communication and computation, remains a formidable task.

A systematic computer-aided approach provides a versatile setting for the control engineer to overcome the complications of controller design for highly nonlinear systems. Computer-aided Nonlinear Control System Design provides such an approach based on the use of describing functions. The text deals with a large class of nonlinear systems without restrictions on the system order, the number of inputs and/or outputs or the number, type or arrangement of nonlinear terms. The strongly software-oriented methods detailed facilitate fulfillment of tight performance requirements and help the designer to think in purely nonlinear terms, avoiding the expedient of linearization which can impose substantial and unrealistic model limitations and drive up the cost of the final product.

Robotic systems have experienced exponential growth thanks to their incredible adaptability. Modern robots require an increasing level of autonomy and the capability to interact with humans. This book addresses the challenges of increasing and ensuring reliability and safety of modern robotic and autonomous systems.

This book has recently been retypeset in LaTeX for clearer presentation.
This textbook on the differential geometric approach to nonlinear control grew out of a set of lecture notes, which were prepared for a course on nonlinear system theory, given by us for the first time during the fall semester of 1988. The audience consisted mostly of graduate students , taking part in the Dutch national Graduate Program on Systems and Control.