Reviews next and applied to discrete and continuous control problems. Both the Riccati equation and the maximum principle are developed through dynamic programming.
Chapter VIII briefly describes some computational methods of optimization.
In general, the author gives proper emphasis to most of the more important aspects of optimal control. (An exception to this is a preoccupation with Fibonacci sequences, which form a significant portion of the sections on sampled-data, dynamic programming and optimum search.) The derivations, while sometimes not rigorous from a mathematician's viewpoint, are quite adequate for an engineer seeking an introduction to the subject, and the results are always presented in an accurate manner. In addition, when the author feels a subject has not been covered in sufficient depth, he does not hesitate to give reference to other publications, generally standard textbooks. On the other hand, the book is generally self-contained.
Standard terminology is used throughout, and the text is amazingly free of typographical errors.
There is no "new" or "advanced" material presented in the book, as that is not its purpose. The author intended to make the book easy to use for the uninitiated and he is extremely effective in accomplishing this goal.