The extraordinary development of digital computers (microprocessors, microcontrollers) and their extensive use in control systems in all fields of applications has brought about important changes in the design of control systems. Their performance and their low cost make them suitable for use in control systems of various kinds which demand far better capabilities and performances than those provided by analog controllers. However, in order really to take advantage of the capabilities of microprocessors, it is not enough to reproduce the behavior of analog (PID) controllers. One needs to implement specific and high-performance model based control techniques developed for computer-controlled systems (techniques that have been extensively tested in practice). In this context identification of a plant dynamic model from data is a fundamental step in the design of the control system. The book takes into account the fact that the association of books with software and on-line material is radically changing the teaching methods of the control discipline. Despite its interactive character, computer-aided control design software requires the understanding of a number of concepts in order to be used efficiently. The use of software for illustrating the various concepts and algorithms helps understanding and rapidly gives a feeling of the various phenomena.
Ioan Doré Landau is Research Director (Emeritus) at C.N.R.S.(National Centre for Scientific Research) and works at the Laboratoire d'Automatique de Grenoble (CNRS/INPG) of the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble.
His research interests encompass theory and applications in system identification, adaptive control, robust digital control and nonlinear systems. He has authored and co-authored over 200 papers on these subjects. He is the author of the books: Adaptive Control: The Model Reference Appoach (Dekker 1979) and translated into Chinese, System Identification and Control Design (Hermès 1993, Prentice Hall 1990). and co-author of the books (with M. Tomizuka) Adaptive Control: Theory and Practice (in Japanese - Ohm 1981) and (with R. Lozano and M. M'Saad) Adaptive Control (Springer Verlag 1997). He edited and co-edited several books in French on the above topics including a series on "Mathematical Tools for Control, System Analysis and Signal Processing and Models" and one on "Adaptive Control". He holds several patents and was at the origin of several software packages in control developed by ADAPTECH. He has advised 29 PhD students. He delivered a number of Plenary Talks at International Conferences including American Control Conference in Seattle in 1995. He was the key note speaker at the European Control Conference in Bruxelles in 1997.
Dr. Landau received the Rufus Oldenburger Medal 2000 from the American Society of Mechanical Engineering in recognition of significant contributions to the field of automatic control for his pioneering contributions in adaptive control and system identification. He was a R. Springer Professor at University of .California. (Berkeley) Department of Mechanical Engineering in 1992. He received the pris Monpetit from the French Academy of Science in 1991, the "Best Review Paper Award (1981-84)" for his paper on adaptive control published in ASME Journal of Dynamical Systems Measurement and Control, the C.N.R.S. Silver Medal in 1982 and the Great Gold Medal at the Invention Exibition Vienna in 1968 for his patent on the variable frequency control of asynchronous motors.
He received the degree of Docteur-des-Sciences Physiques from the University of Grenoble. Before joining the C.N.R.S. in 1976 as research director, he was an Associate Professor at the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble from 1973 to 1976, a Senior Post-doctoral Research Associate at NASA - Ames Research Center in 1971-72 and a research engineer at ALSTHOM in 1969-71 and 72-73.
At C.N.R.S. he launched several coordinated programs in the field of Control which contributed to the emergence and development of the French control community. He was the Director of the co-ordinated research programs: "Mathematical Tools and Models for Control, System Analysis and Signal Processing" from 1979 to 1982, "Adaptive Systems in Control and Signal Processing" from 1984 to 1988 and "Automatique" from 1988 to 1996. He was also Director of the Laboratoire d'Automatique de Grenoble from 1987 to 1990.
Dr. Landau was the General Chairman of the first European Control Conference organised in Grenoble in 1991. He was one of the founders and the first President of the European Community Control Association (ECCA) from 1991 to 1993 (now EUCA) and he was Editor in Chief of the European Journal of Control (a publication of the European Union Control Association) from 1994 to the end of 2002.
In June 1998 the CNRS organized an international colloquium in his honor "Perspectives in Control - Theory and Applications". The proceedings of the colloqium (Normand-Cyrot, Ed., Perspectives in Control 1-85233-042-2) were published by Springer.
