The area has two main parts. The first is digital control theory; i.e. how to design the control algorithms. The second aspect is implementation of the algorithms. This includes both the hardware and the software aspects. During the last tew years several books have been published that cover either the control theory or the programming aspects. This book tries to cover both aspects. The book is a collection of lectures given at a vacation school on Computer Control of Industrial Processes held at the University of Sheffield in September 1980. The book contains eleven chapters each by different authors covering various aspects of digital control. One can look upon the book in several ways. Either as a collection of papers that can be read separately or as one unit that should cover computer control of industrial processes. Both ways will be discussed in this review.
The first five chapters of the book covers mainly the control aspects, and discuss algorithms and design of computer control systems. The next three chapters discuss requirement for realtime computing, communication and software. Two chapters describe application of computer control for pH control and control of power stations. The final two chapters treat manufacturing processes.
The book is very limited in space and it is of course very difficult to cover all aspects of computer control. The result is thus that most of the parts are discussed in very broad terms. This is especially the case with the parts covering the hardware and the software. There are, however, several chapters in the book that may serve as introductions into various aspects of computer control. The book can thus be useful for someone that wants an overview of the field. The two chapters on manufacturing systems are, however, a bit aside the main stream. A result of the fact that the book was written by different authors is that digital PID controllers are discussed in several places. However, the authors to a great extent have managed to use consistent notations. Several chapters also have lists of symbols.
Looking at the book as a collection of papers is more rewarding. The best parts cover control algorithms in different settings. There is now a great interest in self-tuning controllers * Computer Control of Industrial Processes, IEEE Control Engineering Series 2l, edited by S. Bennett and D. A. Linkens. Published by Peter Peregrinus, Stevenage (1982). 208 pp.