Jörg Kahlert

The study of control engineering is indispensable for the understanding of a multitude of technical, but also non-technical devices and processes. Simple qualitative relationships can often be illustrated without too much prior mathematical knowledge. However, for a deeper penetration into the subject matter and the derivation of quantitative statements, basic knowledge of higher mathematics and systems theory is required. This introductory book on control engineering therefore first teaches the basics of the individual topics without superfluous mathematical 'ballast'. Selected sub-aspects are then dealt with in greater depth using appropriate mathematical tools. However, these mathematically more demanding sections are clearly separated from the basic topics. The more practice-oriented reader can simply omit them without jeopardising the understanding of the following chapters. A separate chapter is dedicated to the realisation of controllers. The realisation of analogue controllers, continuous linear controllers (electronic), up to digital, PLC and switching controllers is considered. Almost all the topics covered in the book are supplemented by a large number of examples that can be reproduced with the accompanying software. They can thus be used as a starting point for your own experiments. This makes the subject of 'control engineering', which is otherwise regarded as 'dry' and very abstract, much more interesting.