The volume contains papers based on lectures delivered during the school
"Per- spectives in Control Theory" held in Sielpia, Poland on September
19-24, 1988. The aim of the school was to give the state-of-the-art
presentation of recent achievements as weH as perspectives in such
fields of control theory as optimal control and optimization, linear
systems, and nonlinear systems. Accordingly, the volume includes survey
papers together with presentations of some recent results. The special
emphasis is put on: - nonlinear systems (algebraic and geometric
methods), - optimal control and optimization (general problems,
distributed parameter systems), - linear systems (linear-quadratic
problem, robust stabilization). An important feature of the school (and
consequently of the volume) was its really "international" character
since it brought together leading control theoriests from West and East.
All together the school was attended by 108 participants from 18
countries. During the school 21 one-hour invited lectures were
delivered. Moreover, five half-an-hour talks were given and 30
contributions were presented in frames of poster sessions. The school
was organized and supported by: Institute of Mathematics of the Polish
Academy of Sciences, Committee of Automatic Control and Robotics of the
Polish Academy of Sciences, - Institute of Automatic Control, Warsaw
University of Technology (as Co- ordinator of the Basic Research Program
R.P.I.02 "Theory of Control of Continuous Dynamic Systems and Discrete
Processes" ).