ABSTRACT
This chapter covers how to determine the stability, how to define the performance in either time domain or frequency domain, and how to identify the model of a system. It discusses the advantages of feedback control, which is utilized in most cases. Control is the process of manipulating, manually or automatically, the input of a dynamic system, so that the system output will behave as desired. A familiar example is the cruise control of an automobile. To maintain a constant vehicle speed set by the driver, the actual speed of the vehicle is measured by the speedometer and fed back to the controller, which adjusts the engine’s throttle position. The speedometer, which acts as a sensor, measures the vehicle speed. The measured speed is fed back and compared with the desired speed, which is the reference signal.
