Considers the application of modern control engineering on digital computers with a view to improving productivity and product quality, easing supervision of industrial processes and reducing energy consumption and pollution. The topics covered may be divided into two main subject areas: (1) applications of digital control - in the chemical and oil industries, in water turbines, energy and power systems, robotics and manufacturing, cement, metallurgical processes, traffic control, heating and cooling; (2) systems theoretical aspects of digital control - adaptive systems, control aspects, multivariable systems, optimization and reliability, modelling and identification, real-time software and languages, distributed systems and data networks. Contains 84 papers.

Computer Aided Design of Multivariable Technological Systems covers the proceedings of the Second International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC). The book reviews papers that discuss topics about the use of Computer Aided Design (CAD) in designing multivariable system, such as theoretical issues, applications, and implementations. The book tackles several topics relevant to the use of CAD in designing multivariable systems. Topics include quasi-classical approach to multivariable feedback system designs; fuzzy control for multivariable systems; root loci with multiple gain parameters; multivariable frequency domain stability criteria; and computational algorithms for pole assignment in linear multivariable systems. The text will be of great use to professionals whose work involves designing and implementing multivariable systems.

J.-E. Dubois and N. Gershon This book was inspired by the Symposium on "Communications and Computer Aided Systems" held at the 14th International CODATA Conference in September 1994 in Chambery, France. It was conceived and influenced by the discussions at the symposium and most of the contributions were written following the Conference. This is the first comprehensive book, published in one volume, of issues concerning the challenges and the vital impact of the information revolution (including the Internet and the World Wide Web) on science and technology. Topics concerning the impact of the information revolution on science and technology include: • Dramatic improvement in sharing of data and information among scientists and engineers around the world • Collaborations (on-line and off-line) of scientists and engineers separated by distance . • Availability of visual tools and methods to view, understand, search, and share information contained in data • Improvements in data and information browsing, search and access and • New ways of publishing scientific and technological data and information. These changes have dramatically modified the way research and development in science and technology are being carried out. However, to facilitate this information flow nationally and internationally, the science and technology communities need to develop and put in place new standards and policies and resolve some legal issues.

Uncertainty is interwoven into human existence. It is a powerful incentive in the search for knowledge and an inherent component of scientific research. We have developed many ways of coping with uncertainty. We make promises, manage risks and make predictions to try to clear the mists and predict ahead. But the future is inherently uncertain - and the mist that shrouds our path an inherent part of our journey. The burning question is whether our societies can face up to uncertainty, learn to embrace it and whether we can open up to a constantly evolving future. In this new book, Helga Nowotny shows how research can thrive at the cusp of uncertainty. Science, she argues, can eventually transform uncertainty into certainty, but into certainty which remains always provisional. Uncertainty is never completely static. It is constantly evolving. It encompasses geological time scales and, at the level of human experience, split-second changes as cells divide. Life and death decisions are taken in the blink of the eye, while human interactions with the natural environment may reveal their impact over millennia. Uncertainty is cunning. It appears at unexpected moments, it shuns the straight line, takes the oblique route and sometimes the unexpected short-cut. As we acknowledge the cunning of uncertainty, its threats retreat. We accept that any scientific inquiry must produce results that are provisional and uncertain. This message is vital for politicians and policy-makers: do not be tempted by small, short-term, controllable gains to the exclusion of uncertain, high-gain opportunities. Wide-ranging in its use of examples and enriched by the author’s experience as President of the European Research Council, one of the world’s leading funding organisations for fundamental research. The Cunning of Uncertainty is a must-read for students and scholars of all disciplines, politicians, policy-makers and anyone concerned with the fundamental role of knowledge and science in our societies today.

The U.S.-USSR Agreement on Cooperation in the Fields of Science and Technology (the S&T Agreement), a major program of scientific and technical cooperation with the Soviet Union, brought about a broadening of the scope of cooperation and an increase in the number of scientists participating in such exchanges. This book takes a retrospective look at the U.S. experience under the agreement. The background, objectives, organizational arrangements, and evaluations of specific projects are examined within the context of the scientific community and the concerns of the two governments. The authors discuss the relative success of the agreement and propose ways in which the scientific and political benefits could be increased.