Identification and control: the gap between theory and practice

While automatic control and system identification have evolved very rapidly in recent years, there is still an important disjunction between the ideas in theoretical texts and what goes on in real plant. There are very few, if any, situations in which "out-of-the-box" theory fits practical application without simplification and adjustment. This mismatch is important, especially in safety-critical applications and is usually compensated by extensive simulation and/or experimental testing.

Identification and Control meets the difficulty of making practical use of new systems theory head on, presenting a selection of varied applications together with relevant theory. The highly-experienced groups of researchers and engineers contributing to this volume show how workable identification and control solutions can be derived by adapting and extrapolating from the theory. Each chapter has a common structure: a brief presentation of theory, extensively cited throughout the chapter; the description of a particular application; experimental results; and a final section highlighting, explaining and laying out solutions to the discrepancy between the theoretical and the practical.

The extensive list of applications used as examples includes: mine planning, suspension polymerization, copper founding, magnetic bearings, electromechanical systems, aircraft flight, active noise control, sewer networks, flexible structures, active suspension and active vision.

Identification and Control faces a well-known but often-evaded problem squarely and helps it readers to prevail against it. This collection is written for researchers interested in the application of control theory and for engineers who want to make use of new ideas in identification and control.