Robust Control of Time-delay Systems

Systems with delays appear frequently in engineering; typical examples of time-delay systems are communication networks, chemical processes and tele-operation systems. The presence of delays makes system analysis and control design much more complicated. During the last decade, we have witnessed significant developments in robust control of time-delay systems. Robust Control of Time-delay Systems presents a systematic and comprehensive treatment for robust (H-infinity) control of such systems in the frequency domain. The emphasis is on systems with a single input or output delay, although the delay-free part of the plant can be multi-input-multi-output, in which case the delays in different channels should be the same.

This synthesis of the author’s recent work covers the whole range of robust control of time-delay systems: from controller parameterization and design to controller implementation; from the Nehari and one-block problems to the four-block problem; from theoretical developments to practical issues. The major tools used in this book are similarity transformation, the chain-scattering approach and J-spectral factorization. The idea is, in the words of Albert Einstein, to "make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler". A website associated with the book is a source of MATLAB® and Simulink® material which will assist with simulation and modelling of the material in the text.

Robust Control of Time-delay Systems is self-contained and will interest control theorists, researchers and mathematicians working with time-delay systems and engineers looking to design commercial controllers or to use them in plants or communication systems with time delays. Its methodical approach will also be of value to graduates studying either general robust control theory or its particular applications in time-delay systems.