Customer Reviews

Feedback Control of Dynamic Systems (5th Edition)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Almost every subject worthy of a textbook already has 1-3 classic titles all new students should read and use. For feedback and control systems, there's Ogata's Modern Control Engineering - and then there are second-rate, tree-killing (where are Ents when you want 'em?), mind-numbing, hair-tearing, expletive-inducing texts like this one. And no, swearing in French while trying to work through a problem doesn't make it more enjoyable either. First, this book is poorly written - long, tiresome, dry writing that lulls you to sleep. Second, there are errors strewn throughout, which because of the lackluster writing you'll initially miss (example, page 221, Ziegler-Nichols tuning, equation 4.52 and fig. 4.13 - mistakes in parameter names can drive you nuts until you read Ogata's clear and concise version). Third, the trivial example problems are little help in solving the harder problems, causing you to rapidly awaken from your reading stupor into frustration and mild terror as you discover the aforementioned errors. At that point, drop this book, reach for Ogata and/or the Schaum's Outline, and discover that introductory controls can make sense and even be elegant. As an aside, I did well in controls with no real EE background, but that's despite this book - praise be unto Ogata. Professors, please ignore the pretty cover and skip this expensive waste of paper, and use Ogata - your students will learn more effectively and may even continue further in the subject.

ok, after being with this book for 5 weeks. NOW, I have to say something about this book. I am now doing my homework and I have to read this book to do it, but in those examples, I dont' see much steps, all I see are "sudden jumps". Cmon, give me a break.. show me the steps... I do not want to spend hours on finding out what the missing steps are. If you are a beginner and dont' know much about feedback, DO NOT buy this book or you will have a hard time. Also, the way this book interprets the problems is not easy to understand either.

As a practicing engineer, I found the book's sections on PID controllers and Multivariable control to be more informative than my other references, including the venerable Ogata.

Though perhaps the objections listed in the other reviews are valid when the text is used for an introductory course, I would just like to point out the text had value for me in understanding real-world PID controllers. Not sure if I would recommend it over Ogata for an introductory course, though.

Both Ogata and this text make extensive use of Matlab, which is almost a requirement to have in order to follow the examples. The author makes available all his Matlab source code on his website, as well.

As an EE student taking a Systems and Controls course using this book, I have grown not only to hate the book but also abhor the teachers who adopted it at my University. The book is confusing and skips many steps in examples. I spend most of my time trying to figure out how the book gets from step A to step B. I should be spending most of my time learning from the examples - not guessing how the book gets from one step to another. There is no clear overview as to what is trying to be taught. Some concepts are explained solely through examples - and those examples are not clear (e.g. Chap 4. sect. 4.1). If you are an instructor, please don't assign this book. Go the no book route if there is no other available. I've spent too many late nights frustrated trying to figure these topics out. The Shaum's outline is much better.

I was required to purchase this book for a class, and I felt that the material in the text did little to prepare me for the exercises. The examples rarely reflected the exercises (for which no solutions are available), the example solutions were exceedingly brief, with little discussion of the 'why' and 'how' of each step. The lack of solutions is pained by the poor correlation between examples and exercises. I feel that more basics need to be covered before the text dives into applications for this to be a good introductory book to controls. I'm willing to agree that this book is good for those who know these basics, but it is certainly not a stand-alone resource for beginners, and an instructor must be ready to patch the gaping holes left by the text.

Author assumes you already know material. As stated by numerous reviewers, I am using this book for a semester class in control and feedback theory. The problems are not well demonstrated. Numerous, non-algebraic steps are skipped, problems at end of chapter are either very simplistic or extremely difficult, not explained in any detail in chapters.

Chapter on block diagrams is poorly explained, I have the benefit of having good professors to explain what the book doesn't. If I didn't need it for the homework assignments I would have sold it back long ago.

Had difficulties with 2cnd order analysis and timing equations, book doesn't explain or give adequate examples to back up the statements made.

If you are going to publish a problem set in the guise of a text, market it as such!

The book is very good for individual study because of its step-by-step approach. However, it is difficult to use for classroom instruction. By teh way, there is an excellent Solutions Manual available from the publisher, which I would recommend for instructors.It uses MATLAB extensively. ISBN 0-201-59937-6,Addsion Wesley 1994.

I was required to buy this book for a mechanical engineering class. It is not clear in the way that it presents the subject matter. The writing is boring and bad.

I used this textbook in a senior year undergraduate controls class at UC Berkeley. The book seems to be aimed at teaching mainly the procedures and MATLAB commands to do control engineering and is very ineffective at imparting understanding that would be helpful in more advanced courses. This book may be suitable if the students don't want to or are incapable of understanding controls beyond memorization of rules. Not recommended as a way to learn the material for the first time. Some specifics:

1. First, the text doesn't seem to be crafted with care: for example, on page 25, Example 2.2, variables are used that are not defined until the next paragraph. I spent a good 5 minutes just checking if I had missed these variables earlier in the text.

2. As I progressed through the book, I continuously found myself looking to other books and resources for the intuition and insight that I feel should have been in this text. The classical control parts of this book are similar to the corresponding sections in Ogata's Modern Control Engineering, but with the insight and depth of understanding omitted. What is left is a vague sense of the concepts lacking the rigor, derivations, or background necessary to feel like you really know what is going on. The section on state-space design is especially frustrating in this respect. All the rigor is banished to Appendix WD, available at the book website---as if the publishers forced the book to be smaller without any regard to the pedagogy of the physical text. Example: The student first sees the word "controllable" on page 430, uninformatively defined as "when the 'controllability matrix' is nonsingular". It isn't until page 450 that any useful word-definition of controllability is given, and if you really want the actual mathematical and intuitive definition, you have to go to the book website.

3. Of course there are plenty of MATLAB commands strewn about the book. If you already know the topic and want to learn to use the appropriate MATLAB commands, this book may be helpful.

After going through the first three chapters of basic analysis of dynamic systems, I felt the book was great and even explained things better than my dynamic systems class, but when the book begins to explain Control theory, PID controllers, root locus, and everything from chapter 4 and then on, it is complete crap. It skips way too many steps, shows the reader concepts through examples which is not a good thing when you have no idea what is going on. It does a horrible job at explaining the math behind it and obscures basic rules for everything. If you do not know control theory already, this book is horrible at teaching it. The Schaum's Outline explains things 10 times as better than this book. It actually proves things that this book doesn't believe it should prove. Worst book I have had to deal with.