The joy of feedback: nonlinear and adaptive

It is argued that, for a cautious design, a nonlinear analysis is needed to reveal when and why linear tools fail. Emerging nonlinear tools that can be used to overcome the limitations of nonlinear designs are discussed. It is shown that some of these tools can be made adaptive and applied to nonlinear systems with unknown parameters. The emergence of robust designs for nonlinear ´interval´ plants is pointed out.