Identifikation Zeitvarianter Regelsysteme [Book reviews]

This little book on the problem of identification of control systems with varying, especially time-varying, parameters is organized in an unusual way. Not written as a textbook, it aims for great clarity and tends toward tabulations to reach its aim. differential, or other equations. The author´s purpose was to survey papers dealing with the identification of time-varying systems. and to compare the applicability and efficiency of the various methods they propose. The author chose the experimental input-sigal-model-building method for developing the model of a system as a basis of comparison. This book applies experimental model-building methods as the more practical for process control problems. The book lists papers on identification of time-varying systems and gives a brief description of them. The first two chapters are introductoy. The first lays the foundation for treating deterministic systems; the second, for treating stochastic ones. The other two chapters concern the main object of the book directly, modeling time-variant systems from experimental data. The book concludes with an example for the application of identification techniques (including an approximation technique developed by the author) for linear time-varying systems. Overall, the book gives a good list of appropriate papers on the topic and discusses them. The manner of discussion indicates that the book is addressed to the working engineer and is an aid to his instruction in this part of system theory. It is not directed toward the researcher.