TABLE OF CONTENTS The aim of this Appendix is to help the readers who are not familiar with closed-loop control and feedback to feel confident when they meet such ideas in the drives context. In line with the remainder of the book, the treatment avoids mathematics where possible, and in particular it makes only passing reference to transform techniques. This approach is chosen deliberately, despite the limitations it imposes, in the belief that it is more useful for the reader to obtain a sound grasp of what really matters in a control system, rather than to become adeptat detailed analysisor design.
The writer's experience when First coming into contact with control was perhaps typical in that it soon became clear how one was required to perform certain mathematical procedures to arrive at the right answer . But when asked exactly what the answer really meant and why it mattered, or what features of the system were critically important and what were not, some yawning gaps in understanding were revealed. Refelcting back, there are perhaps two main reasons why this experience is not uncommon. Firstly, in the majority of student textbooks, the topic of control is introduced at the same time as the Laplace transform technique, which many readers will have not met before. And secondly, the casual use of jargon that seems to be a particular characteristic of control specialists can be bewildering to newcomers.
The Laplace transform approach to the analysis and design of linear systems...
