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Description of  Classic Papers in Control Theory (Dover Books on Engineering)

This collection of historically and technically important papers follows a logical line of development from early work in mathematical control theory to studies in adaptive control processes. The book touches upon all the major themes: stability theory, feedback control, time lag, prediction theory, dynamic programming, "bang-bang" control, and maximum principles. The book opens with J. C. Maxwell's "On Governors" and continues with "The Control of an Elastic Fluid" by H. Bateman an essay by editors Bellman and Kalaba, "The Work of Lyapunov and Poincare" Hurwitz's "On the Conditions Under Which an Equation Has Only Roots With Negative Real Parts" Nyquist's "Regeneration Theory" "Feedback — The History of an Idea" by H. W. Bode a paper on forced oscillations in a circuit by B. van der Pol "Self-excited Oscillations in Dynamical Systems Possessing Retarded Action" by N. Minorsky "An Extension of Wiener's Theory of Prediction" by Zadeh and Ragazzini "Time Optimal Control Systems" by J. P. LaSalle "On the Theory of Optimal Processes" by Boltyanskii, Gamkrelidze, and Pontryagin Bellman's "On the Application of the Theory of Dynamic Programming to the Study of Control Processes" and the editors' study "Dynamic Programming and Adaptive Processes: Mathematical Foundation." Each paper is introduced with a brief account of its significance and with some suggestions for further reading.