"This book is an excellent addition to existing textbooks on linear systems theory. With emphasis on topics and results that are fundamental to systems theory and control, the book strikes a balance between breadth and depth, and between basics concepts and tools and mathematical rigor. The book is clearly written, and its presentation is transparent and smooth. It is an excellent textbook for a one-semester, first-year graduate-level course on linear systems theory. Indeed, I have adopted this book as the textbook for the linear systems course that I teach. The book is also a useful reference for researchers and engineering practitioners."
--Lihua Xie, IEEE Control Systems Magazine
"The primer is an introduction to systems, geared to advanced undergraduate and graduate students. The authors are prominent and authoritative. ...Topic coverage is broad, ranging from basics like system models, controllability, and observability, to state feedback and controllers with two degrees of freedom. Ten brief appendixes cover basic background material such as vector spaces and eigenvalues. Summing up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty."
--CHOICE
"This is a textbook introduction to system theory and linear systems control, for a one-semester course at the first-year graduate level. ... This primer is aimed essentially at course use, with an emphasis on key results and essential theory. ... Each chapter ends with a useful 'summary and highlights' section and well-documented historical notes pointing back to the technical literature."
--Didier Henrion, Mathematical Reviews
"The book A Linear Systems Primer is a streamlined presentation of the book Linear Systems ... of the same authors. It provides an introduction to system theory with an emphasis on control theory. The book is accompanied by many illustrative examples. ...used as a textbook for senior undergraduate of a typical one-semester course introduction to linear systems primarily for first-year graduate and senior undergraduate students in engineering, but also in mathematics, physics and the rest of the sciences.
(Nicholas Karampetakis, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1168, 2009)
Review by Lihua Xie, in IEEE Control Systems Magazine, pp. 79-80, August 2009.
This book focuses on time invariant finite-dimensional systems, covering both continuous- and discrete-time topics. The book is organized into ten chapters, which cover models for dynamical systems, state-space and internal-external descriptions of systems; responses of linear systems; stability. controllability, and observability; polynomial models; system realization; state feedback; and observer design. At the end of each chapter, a summary of key topics and results are given, as are notes and references. A substantial number of exercises are also provided. This book is an excellent addition to existing textbooks on linear systems theory. It is clearly written, and its presentation is transparent and smooth. It is an excellent textbook for a one-semester first-year graduate-level course on linear systems theory.
This is a textbook introduction to system theory and linear systems control, for a one-semester course at first-year graduate level, for students with a background in engineering. This primer is a shortened version of the comprehensive book [P. J. Antsaklis, A. N. Michel. Linear systems. Birkhauser, Boston, 2006] reviewed in MR2197279 (2006k:93001), a reprint (with some additions and corrections) of an original book (same authors, same title) published by McGraw-Hill, New York, in 1997, in turn reviewed extensively by T. E. Djaferis in IEEE Trans. Autom. Control, Vol. 44, No. 6, pp. 1320-1321, June 1999 and by S. P. Bhattacharyya in Automatica, Vol. 36, No. 5, pp. 783-785, May 2000.
This primer is aimed essentially at course use, with an emphasis on key results and essential theory. Its 2006 companion book, aimed at researchers working in the field, contains in addition an extensive coverage of time-varying systems and all the proofs of the technical results. A complete solution manual to the exercises described in the primer is available from the publisher, even though answers to some selected exercises are given at the end of the book. Each chapter ends with a useful "summary and highlights" section and well-documented historical notes pointing back to the technical literature.
The primer (together with its companion book) covers some material on polynomial matrices and matrix fractional representations which is typically omitted in linear systems courses. Based on this material, the book culminates with a chapter on the parametrization of all stabilizing controllers and its application in systems design.
Didier Henrion, Toulouse, 6 June 2008.