Ben M. Chen

Unmanned Rotorcraft Systems explores the research and development of fully-functional miniature UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) rotorcraft, and provides a complete treatment of the design of autonomous miniature rotorcraft UAVs. The unmanned system is an integration of advanced technologies developed in communications, computing, and control areas, and is an excellent testing ground for trialing and implementing modern control techniques. Included are detailed expositions of systematic hardware construction, software systems integration, aerodynamic modeling; and automatic flight control system design. Emphasis is placed on the cooperative control and flight formation of multiple UAVs, vision-based ground target tracking, and landing on moving platforms. Other issues such as the development of GPS-less indoor micro aerial vehicles and vision-based navigation are also discussed in depth: utilizing the vision-based system for accomplishing ground target tracking, attacking and landing, cooperative control and flight formation of multiple unmanned rotorcraft; and future research directions on the related areas.

Remote web-based experimentation, enabling students and researchers to access the laboratory anytime via the Internet, is becoming an increasingly attractive way to complement or even replace traditional laboratory sessions. Placing a video camera & microphone before the equipment and apparatus to capture what is actually happening in the laboratory allows the images and audio data to be streamed to the client side. Researchers in different countries can share equipment and conduct research cooperatively and remotely. The authors summarise their research and discuss the development of the 5 web-based laboratories launched from the National University of Singapore. The principles, structure, and technologies required for the creation of Internet remote experimentation systems are discussed with particular emphasis on the integration of hardware and software systems. Also highlighted is the design and development of interfaces and components for use in typical web-based laboratories or similar web-control applications.

Stock Market Modeling and Forecasting translates experience in system adaptation gained in an engineering context to the modeling of financial markets with a view to improving the capture and understanding of market dynamics. The modeling process is considered as identifying a dynamic system in which a real stock market is treated as an unknown plant and the identification model proposed is tuned by feedback of the matching error. Like a physical system, a financial market exhibits fast and slow dynamics corresponding to external (such as company value and profitability) and internal forces (such as investor sentiment and commodity prices) respectively. The framework presented here, consisting of an internal model and an adaptive filter, is successful at considering both fast and slow market dynamics. A double selection method is efficacious in identifying input factors influential in market movements, revealing them to be both frequency- and market-dependent. The authors present work on both developed and developing markets in the shape of the US, Hong Kong, Chinese and Singaporean stock markets. Results from all these sources demonstrate the efficiency of the model framework in identifying significant influences and the quality of its predictive ability; promising results are also obtained by applying the model framework to the forecasting of major market-turning periods. Having shown that system-theoretic ideas can form the core of a novel and effective basis for stock market analysis, the book is completed by an indication of possible and likely future expansions of the research in this area.

Loop Transfer Recovery (LTR) is part of the Communications and Control Engineering Series (CCES) edited by Professors B. W. Dickinson, E. D. Sontag, M. Thoma, A. Fettweis, J. L. Massey and J. W. Modestino. Loop Transfer Recovery deals with several issues of analysis and design of the Loop Transfer Recovery (LTR) problem. It discusses when and how an LTR is possible and outlines different controller structures and the available design freedom. An explanation of the actual design methods for accomplishing an LTR is given. Besides dealing with observer based measurement feedback controllers, which are commonly used for LTR, a new controller with a different architecture which out performs observer based controllers is presented. This publication will be of benefit to anyone who has completed a first graduate course in linear systems and state-space methods, together with an elementary knowledge of Linear Quadratic Control.

Structural properties play an important role in our understanding of linear systems in the state space representation. The structural canonical form representation of linear systems not only reveals the structural properties but also facilitates the design of feedback laws that meet various control objectives. In particular, it decomposes the system into various subsystems. These subsystems, along with the interconnections that exist among them, clearly show the structural properties of the system. The simplicity of the subsystems and their explicit interconnections with each other lead us to a deeper insight into how feedback control would take effect on the system, and thus to the explicit construction of feedback laws that meet our design specifications. The discovery of structural canonical forms and their applications in feedback design for various performance specifications has been an active area of research for a long time. The effectiveness of the structural decomposition approach has also been extensively explored in nonlinear systems and control theory in the recent past. The aim of this book is to systematically present various canonical represen­ tations of the linear system, that explicitly reveal different structural properties of the system, and to report on some recent developments on its utilization in sys­ tem analysis and design.

Unmanned Rotorcraft Systems explores the research and development of fully-functional miniature UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) rotorcraft, and provides a complete treatment of the design of autonomous miniature rotorcraft UAVs. The unmanned system is an integration of advanced technologies developed in communications, computing, and control areas, and is an excellent testing ground for trialing and implementing modern control techniques. Included are detailed expositions of systematic hardware construction, software systems integration, aerodynamic modeling; and automatic flight control system design. Emphasis is placed on the cooperative control and flight formation of multiple UAVs, vision-based ground target tracking, and landing on moving platforms. Other issues such as the development of GPS-less indoor micro aerial vehicles and vision-based navigation are also discussed in depth: utilizing the vision-based system for accomplishing ground target tracking, attacking and landing, cooperative control and flight formation of multiple unmanned rotorcraft; and future research directions on the related areas.

H-infinity control theory deals with the minimization of the H-infinity-norm of the transfer matrix from an exogenous disturbance to a pertinent controlled output of a given plant. Robust and H-infinity Control examines both the theoretical and practical aspects of H-infinity control from the angle of the structural properties of linear systems. Constructive algorithms are provided for finding solutions to: • general singular H-infinity control problems; • general H-infinity almost disturbance decoupling problems; • robust and perfect tracking problems. Theories are also applied to real-life problems with actual implementations. This book can be used for graduate courses in departments of aeronautics and astronautics, applied mathematics, chemical engineering, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. It should also be of great value to engineers practising in industry.

The series Advances in Industrial Control aims to report and encourage technology transfer in control engineering. The rapid development of control technology has an impact on all areas of the control discipline. New theory, new controllers, actuators, sensors, new industrial processes, computer methods, new applications, new philosophies , new challenges. Much of this development work resides in industrial reports, feasibility study papers and the reports of advanced collaborative projects. The series offers an opportunity for researchers to present an extended exposition of such new work in all aspects of industrial control for wider and rapid dissemination. Hard disk drive systems are ubiquitous in today’s computer systems and the technology is still evolving. There is a review of hard disk drive technology and construction in the early pages of this monograph that looks at the characteristics of the disks and there it can be read that: “bit density… continues to increase at an amazing rate”, “spindle speed… the move to faster and faster spindle speeds continue”, “form factors… the trend…is downward… to smaller and smaller drives”, “performance… factors are improving”, “redundant arrays of inexpensive disks… becoming increasingly common, and is now seen in consumer desktop machines”, “reliability… is improving slowly… it is very hard to improve the reliability of a product when it is changing rapidly” and finally “interfaces… continue to create new and improved standards… to match the increase in performance of the hard disks themselves”.

The series Advances in Industrial Control aims to report and encourage technology transfer in control engineering. The rapid development of control technology has an impact on all areas of the control discipline. New theory, new controllers, actuators, sensors, new industrial processes, computer methods, new applications, new philosophies , new challenges. Much of this development work resides in industrial reports, feasibility study papers and the reports of advanced collaborative projects. The series offers an opportunity for researchers to present an extended exposition of such new work in all aspects of industrial control for wider and rapid dissemination. Hard disk drive systems are ubiquitous in today’s computer systems and the technology is still evolving. There is a review of hard disk drive technology and construction in the early pages of this monograph that looks at the characteristics of the disks and there it can be read that: “bit density… continues to increase at an amazing rate”, “spindle speed… the move to faster and faster spindle speeds continue”, “form factors… the trend…is downward… to smaller and smaller drives”, “performance… factors are improving”, “redundant arrays of inexpensive disks… becoming increasingly common, and is now seen in consumer desktop machines”, “reliability… is improving slowly… it is very hard to improve the reliability of a product when it is changing rapidly” and finally “interfaces… continue to create new and improved standards… to match the increase in performance of the hard disks themselves”.

Remote web-based experimentation, enabling students and researchers to access the laboratory anytime via the Internet, is becoming an increasingly attractive way to complement or even replace traditional laboratory sessions. Placing a video camera & microphone before the equipment and apparatus to capture what is actually happening in the laboratory allows the images and audio data to be streamed to the client side. Researchers in different countries can share equipment and conduct research cooperatively and remotely. The authors summarise their research and discuss the development of the 5 web-based laboratories launched from the National University of Singapore. The principles, structure, and technologies required for the creation of Internet remote experimentation systems are discussed with particular emphasis on the integration of hardware and software systems. Also highlighted is the design and development of interfaces and components for use in typical web-based laboratories or similar web-control applications.

Structural properties play an important role in our understanding of linear systems in the state space representation. The structural canonical form representation of linear systems not only reveals the structural properties but also facilitates the design of feedback laws that meet various control objectives. In particular, it decomposes the system into various subsystems. These subsystems, along with the interconnections that exist among them, clearly show the structural properties of the system. The simplicity of the subsystems and their explicit interconnections with each other lead us to a deeper insight into how feedback control would take effect on the system, and thus to the explicit construction of feedback laws that meet our design specifications. The discovery of structural canonical forms and their applications in feedback design for various performance specifications has been an active area of research for a long time. The effectiveness of the structural decomposition approach has also been extensively explored in nonlinear systems and control theory in the recent past. The aim of this book is to systematically present various canonical represen­ tations of the linear system, that explicitly reveal different structural properties of the system, and to report on some recent developments on its utilization in sys­ tem analysis and design.

H-infinity control theory deals with the minimization of the H-infinity-norm of the transfer matrix from an exogenous disturbance to a pertinent controlled output of a given plant. Robust and H-infinity Control examines both the theoretical and practical aspects of H-infinity control from the angle of the structural properties of linear systems. Constructive algorithms are provided for finding solutions to: • general singular H-infinity control problems; • general H-infinity almost disturbance decoupling problems; • robust and perfect tracking problems. Theories are also applied to real-life problems with actual implementations. This book can be used for graduate courses in departments of aeronautics and astronautics, applied mathematics, chemical engineering, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. It should also be of great value to engineers practising in industry.

H... control theory is a subject that deals with the minimisation of the H... norm of the transfer matrix from an exogenous disturbance to a pertinent controlled output of a given plant. H... Control and Its Applications examines both the theoretical and practical aspects of H... control from the angle of the structural properties of linear systems. Constructive algorithms for finding solutions to general singular H... control problems are presented, as well as solutions to general H... almost disturbance decoupling problems, and the applications of the theory to real-life problems with actual implementations is also presented. The book deals with all such issues for general continuous - and discrete-time systems. The book can be used in graduate courses in departments of aeronautics and astronautics, applied mathematics, chemical engineering, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. It is also invaluable for practising engineers in industry.