Customer Reviews

Modern Control Systems (11th Edition)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is pretty good, provided you have an adequate grasp of the background information. What I mean by that is: if you have had exposure to a course in system dynamics (not just classical dynamics), you should find that this book serves the purpose of teaching you control theory. If on the other hand, you have not had exposure to system dynamics, you are in for a world of hurt, as the author does not guide the reader by the hand in developing the material in this book (note: this is particularly true in the early going when the material is presented as if it were a review, not a first go around). In essence, you are left with a few choices: suffer through the text and repeatedly beat your head against the wall, get a solid system dynamics text to supplement the information in this book, or junk this text and find a control book that guides you through the subject matter a bit better - particularly if this is your first crack at control theory. Option one isn't on the table if you really want a shot at passing your class, so for the other two options, consider the following: for a solid system dynamics text check out either Ogata, or Kelly (Ogata has alot of examples and MATLAB examples following the development of the subject matter, while Kelly has more meat in his development of the material and less examples however he does touch on developing Simulink models and some of his MATLAB codes are bit more sophisticated). As far as an auxiliary control text, I would definitely check out Nise. His gentle development will allow the reader to easily grasp the subjects as presented and could be used as a self-study text on the subject matter (and both Nise and this text have nice a MATLAB brush-up as well as adaptation to the text material in their appendices and sprinkled through the text). Overall not a bad text, but like a lot of the other reviewers I felt that it could be a bit better, so I'm knocking off a few stars.

Taking control theory course at my school where the book is required. As a student introduced to the theory for the first time, this book has been no help at all. Explanations are very limited and I find myself re-reading the same page numerous times just to figure out how did the author came up with derivations. Text is often too dry without any real world connection (essential for engineering students - at least for me). If this text is required, prepare to spend a lot of time with your professor. This is NOT a good book for intro course.

This book is one of the worst I've had in Engineering school. The explanations are weak, only going over the simplest version of a concept. Just wait until your professor actually assigns problems from the book. The problems are difficult and complex, and there are zero answers in the back to verify your answers. So, you have no clue if you're doing it right. If your professor is not very helpful, you're in trouble.

The examples and explanations in this book are actually pretty good and easy to understand compared to other control systems books. The real world applications of some of the examples are pretty interesting.

I used this book for an intro controls class as an EE graduate student. This is the first book I've seen that I think actually has too many examples, charts, graphs, and pictures, to the point of where the student can easily lose focus of the main, core concepts at hand. Many of the so-called "design" problems at the end of the chapters are too lengthy, complex, and verbose to be of much use other than a hindsight reference.

It's also the first time I've seen what I think is too many end of chapter problems, especially when there are no answers to the problems to check. End of chapter problems are split up into "exercises", "problems", "advanced problems", "design problems", and "computer problems". Most chapters have well over 50 exercises. It would have been nice to have say 20-30 problems with a few Matlab ones thrown into the mix, instead of having a separate Matlab section at the end of each chapter.

In general, the book seems to try to be everything to everyone, instead of starting with a solid mathematical foundation that is continually built upon as more theory is presented. Weighing in at over 1000 pages, this book probably could have conveyed the same information in a more lucid, enlightening fashion in half the space.

I would recommend Control Systems Engineering by Nise as a more viable intro controls book.

I am taking a 1 semester long control course from EE department.
This is the book we use. It features numerous mistakes and skimpish explanations. It also skips a lot of derivations of concepts. Very weak text for the course. I am not sure of the alternatives but it is not hard to imagine something better.
It is also virutally identical to the previous editions - i get by just fine with the 9th edition which i obtained for $15 used.

If you have never studied control systems (s transforms, z transforms, root locus) then this is a great starter book. Explanations are in simple language and accompany with nice illustrations. I love this book. This edition 11, has matlab examples after each chapter.

But if you are already familiar and understand many control system concepts and want a more indept analysis or more theory and techniques, then this is not for you.

This book covers a lot of ground and does a so-so job explaining the topics. Plenty of reference tables and examples though.

This book is not very helpful to an engineering undergraduate student. I could see how it would be useful, to some degree to a graduate student. THe examples are few and not well explained. Some examples are explained on one page and diagrammed on the next. THe problems are plentiful, but solutions are not easy to come by. The book would benefit by having more worked out problems and less end of chapter problems. I would not recommend this book. Look for something else, unless you have a firm grasp of control engineering before using it.

the book arrived in perfect condition just as expected and the shipping arrived withing the alloted time. B+