Early control textbooks in Norway

Abstract

This chapter reviews three of the early control textbooks in Norway: (1) Control Engineering (Reguleringsteknikk) Vol. 1, (2) Control Engineering (Reguleringsteknikk) Vol. 2, and (3) Control Engineering (Reguleringsteknikk) Vol. 3. Reguleringsteknikk Vol. 1 was based on classical theory of control systems with Laplace transforms and frequency response methods applied to analysis and synthesis. It contained some original contributions that became popular two decades later. During the 1960s there was a rapid growth in the enrolment of students who wrote their Masters and Doctoral Theses at the Division of Control Engineering. Therefore a number of courses were developed covering advanced topics of control systems theory such as: Theory of Discrete Control Systems; Theory of Nonlinear Control Systems (Liapunov Theory, Harmonic Balance); Stochastic Methods in Linear Control Systems Analysis and Identification of System Parameters; and Optimal Control Theory. The first three of these topics were dealt with in the second volume of Control Engineering. The third volume is completely based on state space descriptions of multivariable dynamic systems and has individual chapters on modal control, optimal control based on the Pontryagin Maximum Principle, dynamic programming, optimal state estimation (Kalman Filtering), and modal and optimal control of distributed parameter systems. The third volume was used for many years in graduate courses at the Department of Engineering Cybernetics together with a variety of books from international publishers. It was regarded among the students to have high pedagogical quality.