A systematic computer-aided approach provides a versatile setting for the control engineer to
overcome the complications of controller design for highly nonlinear systems. Computer-aided
Nonlinear Control System Design provides such an approach based on the use of describing
functions. The text deals with a large class of nonlinear systems without restrictions on the
system order the number of inputs and or outputs or the number type or arrangement of
nonlinear terms. The strongly software-oriented methods detailed facilitate fulfillment of
tight performance requirements and help the designer to think in purely nonlinear terms
avoiding the expedient of linearization which can impose substantial and unrealistic model
limitations and drive up the cost of the final product. Design procedures are presented in a
step-by-step algorithmic format each step being a functional unit with outputs that drive the
other steps. This procedure may be easily implemented on a digital computer with example
problems from mechatronic and aerospace design being used to demonstrate the techniques
discussed. The author's commercial MATLAB®-based environment available separately from insert
URL here can be used to create simulations showing the results of using the computer-aided
control system design ideas characterized in the text. Academic researchers and graduate
students studying nonlinear control systems and control engineers dealing with nonlinear plant
particularly mechatronic or aerospace systems will find Computer-aided Nonlinear Control System
Design to be of great practical assistance adding to their toolbox of techniques for dealing
with system nonlinearities. A basic knowledge of calculus nonlinear analysis and software
engineering will enable the reader to get the best from this book.
