ABSTRACT
Block diagrams are representations of physical systems using blocks. They are among the many representations such as transfer function representation, impulse response representation, difference equation representation, state-space representation, etc. This chapter begins by examining block diagrams that are built from the very basic components and then looks at block diagrams that are built from subsystems. It also looks at methods of reducing block diagrams with the main goal of obtaining the transfer function representations. Of the many block diagram representations, the chapter is mainly concerned with five of them. The first three are the canonical controllable, the canonical observable, and the diagonal or the Jordan forms. These three representations are presented in block diagrams using the basic building blocks. The other two are the series and parallel forms, and they are built using subsystems. The series and the parallel representations are important in the process of building analog or digital filters using first- and second-order transfer functions.
