Control of Dead-time Processes

The topics of control engineering and signal processing continue to ?o- ish and develop. In common with general scienti?c investigation, new ideas, concepts and interpretations emerge quite spontaneously and these are then discussed,used,discardedorsubsumedinto theprevailingsubjectparadigm. Sometimes these innovative concepts coalesce into a new sub-discipline within the broad subject tapestry of control and signal processing. This p- liminary battle between old and new usually takes place at conferences, through the Internet and in the journals of the discipline. After a little more maturity has been acquired by the new concepts then archival publication as a scienti?c or engineering monograph may occur. A new concept in control and signal processing is known to have - rived when suf?cient material has evolved for the topic to be taught as a specialised tutorial workshop or as a course to undergraduate, graduate or industrial engineers. Advanced Textbooks in Control and Signal Processing are designed as a vehicle for the systematic presentation of course material for both popularand innovative topics in the discipline. It is hoped that prosp- tive authors will welcome the opportunity to publish a structured and s- tematic presentation of some of the newer emerging control and signal p- cessing technologies in the textbook series.

Prof. Julio E. Normey-Rico is with the Automation and Systems Department of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. He has been teaching Linear Systems and Classical Control in the Electrical and Automation and Control undergraduate courses since 1990. Since that date, he has also taught Multivariable Process Control and Digital Control in the MSc Program. Since 2000 he has taught Predictive Control and Dead-time System Control in the PhD program of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. He has been a visiting professor for the PhD programs of the Universities of Seville, Carlos III de Madrid and Seville in Spain. He has authored and co-authored more than a 60 technical papers in international journals and conference proceedings. He has carried out review work for various conferences and technical journals. His main areas of research are process control, dead-time processes and industrial applications.

Professor Eduardo F. Camacho is Professor of the Department of System Engineering and Automatic Control at the University of Seville. His previous publications include the books: Model Predictive Control in the Process Industry (1995), Advanced Control of Solar Plants (1997) and Model Predictive Control (1999 and 2/e 20004) all published by Springer and Control e Instrumentación de Procesos Quimicos published by Ed. Sintesis. He has authored and co-authored more than a 150 technical papers in international journals and conference proceedings.

Eduardo Camacho has served on various IFAC technical committees and was a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE/CSS appointed by the president for 2001. He served as Chair of the IFAC Publication Committee from 2002-2005. At present he is the chair of the IEEE/CSS International Affairs Committee, Chair of the IFAC Policy Committee and President of the European Control Association He has carried out review and editorial work for various conferencesand technical journals. At present he is one of the editors of the IFAC journal, Control Engineering Practice, and an associate editor of the European Journal of Control. He was Publication Chair for the IFAC World Congress in Barcelona in 2002 and the General Chair of the joint Conference on Decision and Control /European Control Conference (CDC/ECC) in December 2005.

Professor Camacho has acted as evaluator of projects at national and European level. He was appointed for four years Manager of the Advanced Production Technology Program of the Spanish National R&D Program. He was one of the Spanish representatives on the Program Committee of the Growth Research program and is now acting as expert for the Program Committee of the NMP research priority of the European Union.