Dynamic Systems and Control Engineering

As we wrap up our introduction to control engineering, it is worth reflecting on the techniques covered thus far. Beginning in Ch. 8, the concept of feedback has been pivotal in designing closed-loop systems that achieve transient and steady-state performance for continuous-time plants such as the mechanical, electrical, thermal, fluidic, and other systems modeled in Chs. 1–4. Using the Laplace transform and linear-algebra-based state-space methods, we have reviewed numerous techniques for placing the poles of the closed-loop system, tracking reference inputs, and rejecting disturbances such as impulses, steps, ramps, and sine waves. These topics form the foundation of control engineering practice and are essential for understanding and applying advanced techniques. In fact, with some additional mathematics, we can extend many of these concepts and results to a broader range of dynamics and greatly improve the performance, robustness, and operating regimes of our control systems.