Feedforward Control: Analysis, Design, Tuning Rules, and Implementation

While there are thousands of books written about feedback control, it is surprising that this is the very first book about feedforward control. Feedforward control is a very powerful technique to compensate for measurable load disturbances in regulation control problems, and the use of feedforward control to assist the traditional feedback controllers is rapidly increasing in industry. The main goal of this book is to describe the power of feedforward control and to present different tuning rules for these controllers. To achieve this goal, theoretical and practical contributions are presented throughout the book to make the technique understandable and easy to implement. The book contains many practical aspects, both in terms of tuning and implementation of the feedforward controller. Many simulation examples are also provided, as well as a presentation of industrial experiences obtained from feedforward control applied to temperature control in greenhouses. For these reasons, we believe that the book will be useful not only at various levels in the teaching systems, but also for engineers working in industry.

José Luis Guzmán
José Luis Guzmán Sánchez was born in Almería, Spain, March 20, 1979. He received the Computer Science Engineering degree and the European Ph.D. degree from the University of Almería, Spain, in 2002 and 2006, respectively. He started working at the University of Almería in 2001 with a scholarship and since then he has been linked to the University. Currently, he is Full Professor of automatic control and system engineering with the University of Almería, where he also belongs to the Automatics, Robotics and Mechatronics research group.
His research interests are focused on the fields of PID control, feedforward control, MPC techniques, and robust control with applications to biotechnology, solar plants, and agricultural processes. Moreover, he is very active in research on teaching/learning methodologies/technologies on control education, particularly in the development of interactive tools as support to automatic control concepts.
Tore Hägglund
Tore Hägglund received his M.Sc degree in Engineering Physics in 1978 and his Ph.D degree in Automatic Control in 1984, both from Lund Institute of Technology, Lund, Sweden, where he currently is professor. Between 1985 and 1989 he worked for Alfa Laval Automation (now ABB) with development and implementation of industrial adaptive controllers.
Tore Hägglund has written several books, e.g. PID Controllers: Theory, Design, and Tuning (coauthor K. J. Åström), and Process Control in Practice. His current research interests are in the areas of process control, tuning and adaptation, and supervision and detection, with applications mainly in the pulp and paper industry.