Control of nonlinear systems, one of the most active research areas in control theory, has always been a domain of natural convergence of research interests in applied mathematics and control engineering. The theory has developed from the early phase of its history, when the basic tool was essentially only the Lyapunov second method, to the present day, where the mathematics ranges from differential geometry, calculus of variations, ordinary and partial differential equations, functional analysis, abstract algebra and stochastic processes, while the applications to advanced engineering design span a wide variety of topics, which include nonlinear controllability and observability, optimal control, state estimation, stability and stabilization, feedback equivalence, motion planning, noninteracting control, disturbance attenuation, asymptotic tracking. The reader will find in the book methods and results which cover a wide variety of problems: starting from pure mathematics (like recent fundamental results on (non)analycity of small balls and the distance function), through its applications to all just mentioned topics of nonlinear control, up to industrial applications of nonlinear control algorithms.

Inhalt
Control of a reduced size model of US navy crane using only motor position sensors.- Algorithms for identification of continuous time nonlinear systems: a passivity approach. Part I: Identification in open-loop operation Part II: Identification in llosed-loop operation.- Flatness-based boundary control of a nonlinear parabolic equation modelling a tubular reactor.- Dynamic feedback transformations of controllable linear time-varying systems.- Asymptotic controllability implies continuous-discrete time feedback stabilizability.- Stabilisation of nonlinear systems by discontinuous dynamic state feedback.- On the stabilization of a class of uncertain systems by bounded control.- Adaptive nonlinear excitation control of synchronous generators with unknown mechanical power.- Nonlinear observers of time derivatives from noisy measurements of periodic signals.- Hamiltonian representation of distributed parameter systems with boundary energy flow.- Differentiable lyapunov function and center manifold theory.- Controlling self-similar traffic and shaping techniques.- Diffusive representation for pseudo-differentially damped nonlinear systems.- Euler's discretization and dynamic equivalence of nonlinear control systems.- Singular systems in dimension 3: Cuspidal case and tangent elliptic flat case.- Flatness of nonlinear control systems and exterior differential systems.- Motion planning for heavy chain systems.- Control of an industrial polymerization reactor using flatness.- Controllability of nonlinear multidimensional control systems.- Stabilization of a series DC motor by dynamic output feedback.- Stabilization of nonlinear systems via forwarding mod{L g V}.- A robust globally asymptotically stabilizing feedback: The example of the artstein's circles.- Robuststabilization for the nonlinear benchmark problem (TORA) using neural nets and evolution strategies.- On convexity in stabilization of nonlinear systems.- Extended goursat normal form: a geometric characterization.- Trajectory tracking for ?-flat nonlinear delay systems with a motor example.- Neuro-genetic robust regulation design for nonlinear parameter dependent systems.- Stability criteria for time-periodic systems via high-order averaging techniques.- Control of nonlinear descriptor systems, a computer algebra based approach.- Vibrational control of singularly perturbed systems.- Recent advances in output regulation of nonlinear systems.- Sliding mode control of the prismatic-prismatic-revolute mobile robot with a flexible joint.- The ISS philosophy as a unifying framework for stability-like behavior.- Control design of a crane for offshore lifting operations.- New theories of set-valued differentials and new versions of the maximum principle of optimal control theory.- Transforming a single-input nonlinear system to a strict feedforward form via feedback.- Extended active-passive decomposition of chaotic systems with application to the modelling and control of synchronous motors.- On canonical decomposition of nonlinear dynamic systems.- New developments in dynamical adaptive backstepping control.