Control System Design: An Introduction to State-Space Methods (Dover Books on Electrical Engineering) Illustrated Edition

The purpose of this classic text is to clarify the newer State-space methods that eclipsed Frequency Domain methods before and during Apollo. At that time, State-space was purely about proofs, and only a handful of Engineers actually were using them for problem solving.To be honest, the math of State Space, pioneered by Russians like Liapunov and Pontryagin during and after Sputnik is daunting, as it substituted ordinary and partial differential equations for transfer functions, the calculus of variations for Wiener-Hopf in optimization, and Liapunov for Bode and Nyquist in stability (although Bode is certainly still used).Because of this, this wonderful classic text gratefully reprised by Dover is still one of the most intuitive explanations about the "practical" side of State-Space. If you're "experiencing" (read enduring) the typical Engineering career cut/sort series of systems and signals then state space courses, this book is a MUST along with the Schaum's problem/solution examples. This also is ideal for self study for folks who want to get a more intuitive and analogous approach to SS with the outstanding didactics and pedagogy of a bygone age where teachers were more concerned with us learners than strutting their mathematical prowess page after page.There are some daunting equations (not problems and solutions), but well explained and illustrated, and numerous diagrams and graphs (especially input/output diagrams for transfer functions) are given so we "get" the underlying concepts. Today we'd call these alogrithms, data structures, UML and parse control schematics, but they work regardless of nomenclature!For problems: Schaum's has an out of print 1970s problem guide that is outstanding, used for under $10 US, at: Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of State Space and Linear Systems (brown cover). The modern versions of these are included in their Signals and Systems problem books, such as: Schaum’s Outline of Signals and Systems, 3rd Edition (Schaum's Outline Series) (the link is the 3rd edition there also is a perfectly fine 2nd for less money at): Schaum's Outline of Signals and Systems, Second Edition (Schaum's Outline Series). Heck, even the oldies but goodies problem guides have problems that are still on exams today!Highly recommended for any bright undergrad and especially EEs, MEs, math majors etc. about to "encounter" signals and systems! Also, as always with Dover, a $150 text for $20 US new-- keep these coming Dover! This is obviously not appropriate with the current state of the art in e-readers due to the slaughter of the LaTex, let alone the diagrams, but Dover makes up for that with it's "ebook pricing for a new printed book" strategy.IMPORTANT! Like many Dovers, this has a "look inside" feature on Amazon. If you're unsure of the text's level compared to your own level of math (especially if you're a teacher or in AP HS), DO check out the look inside feature above. Confident publishers do this, and they'd also rather have you happy with your purchase. If the stuff is too advanced after you look, you can peruse a Schaums or less technical intro first, such as Albertos' very fine beginner and popular Control text: Feedback and Control for Everyone, which also is $20 US, despite being from Springer!

The most common way of introducing state-space methods is via linear matrix algebra. This of course is not a problem per se, on the contrary, linear matrix algebra provides the right tools and, besides, is of unsurpassed elegance... and that is precisely the danger. Most engineering students when taking a course on state-space methods expect to add to their toolbox analysis and design methods and also to increase their insight. Although liner state-space methods can reward the student with such benefits, a course on the topic provides a diversity of opportunities to drift away in "repulsive to look and tedious" (from the book, p. 428) algebra thus obscuring the practical implications of the methods.In Control System Design, Prof. Friedland provides a nice balance of various aspects, such as good physical motivation, engineering insight to most problems, a significant number of worked examples based on physical system models and a very nice, though brief, historical perspective of the related material. This is not to say that there is no matrix algebra, but it is certainly not the emphasis. This could mean that for a graduate course on the subject the reader might need another reference. The book, as admitted by the author, is intended for an undergraduate course and for practicing engineers. Hence, if you need a book at undergraduate level, here you have an excellent option. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a book at graduate level with a more mathematical approach, use Friedland's book as motivational and find some other book for the more mathematical aspects.Finally, I would like to point out what seems to me a very positive and very rare feature of this book. If you ever take a course on the history of Science or history of Control, you will never read a book again without wondering who were the first people to address a certain problem or to propose a certain method. Unfortunately most books simply don't care to give the reader any historical background, and even more regrettable is the fact that most readers won't even notice the omission. Well, in this respect, Prof. Friedland has done a good job providing bits of historical background in almost every chapter. Having studied under John Ragazzini, just as Rudolf Kalman who is one of the fathers of state-space methods, Bernard Friedland offers some historical background almost as an eye witness.

For a book written in the mid-1980s, the mathematical theory is thoroughly complete and understandable to the reader. Having studied this material in grad school, the material was very familiar and easy to follow for any engineer or scientist wishing to grasp state-space modeling in LTI only. Time variant systems are not explored in this book, unfortunately. Very well written book and would recommend.

A classical text book for people to dive into mordern control theory. Give me pretty good education as an engineer eager to get into control field

Very easy to follow with modular chapters allowing for reference manual type of usage.

I'm a profesor whose taught out of this test twice for a graduate-level course on state space and modern control. This text is a joy to use - well written, clearly exmpained examples, and well thought out organization. I highly recommend it!

I highly recommend this book. If you still strugle to understand the relationship between differential applications and State-Space, this is your book.

The kindle edition is rife with typographical errors. Most you can figure out from context, but there are a few in the first few chapters that cannot be resolved.