Anyone seeking a gentle introduction to the methods of modern control theory and engineering, written at the level of a first-year graduate course, should consider this book seriously. It contains:

• A generous historical overview of automatic control, from Ancient Greece to the 1970s, when this discipline matured into an essential field for electrical, mechanical, aerospace, chemical, and biomedical engineers, as well as mathematicians, and more recently, computer scientists;
• A balanced presentation of the relevant theory: the main state-space methods for description, analysis, and design of linear control systems are derived, without overwhelming theoretical arguments;
• Over 250 solved and exercise problems for both continuous- and discrete-time systems, often including MATLAB simulations; and
• Appendixes on MATLAB, advanced matrix theory, and the history of mathematical tools such as differential calculus, transform methods, and linear algebra.

• Linearization and discretization;
• Stability, controllability, and observability;
• State feedback, controller design, and optimal control; and
• Observer design, reduced order observers, and Kalman filtering.

Foreword. Preface. I: Theory of linear control systems. 1. Historical overview of automatic control. 2. Modern control theory. II: Solved problems. 3. Continuous linear systems. 4. Discrete linear systems. 5. Exercise problems. III: Appendixes. Bibliography. Index.