This book, "Linear Controller Design: Limits of Performance," by Stephen Boyd and Craig Barratt, is a comprehensive guide to the design of linear controllers. It aims to provide a clear framework for formulating the linear controller design problem and to show that many of these problems can be cast as convex optimization problems. The authors emphasize the determination of performance limits, which are specifications that cannot be achieved with a given system and control configuration. The book is structured into four parts: 1. **A Framework for Controller Design**: Introduces the basic concepts of control engineering, including system design, control configuration, modeling, and controller design. 2. **Analytical Tools**: Discusses norms of signals and systems, geometric properties of design specifications, and the concept of closed-loop convex design specifications. 3. **Design Specifications**: Catalogs various closed-loop convex design specifications, including performance and robustness specifications. 4. **Numerical Methods**: Describes numerical methods for solving controller design problems, including analytic solutions and numerical optimization techniques. The authors highlight the importance of utilizing available computing power to design controllers effectively and argue that solving a restricted class of controller design problems is fundamentally tractable. They also emphasize the practical value of knowing the limits of performance, which can guide the design process and provide a benchmark for evaluating controller performance. The book is intended for sophisticated industrial control engineers, researchers, and students in control engineering, assuming a basic understanding of linear systems. It is not a survey of recent techniques but rather a focused exploration of the theoretical and practical aspects of linear controller design.This book, "Linear Controller Design: Limits of Performance," by Stephen Boyd and Craig Barratt, is a comprehensive guide to the design of linear controllers. It aims to provide a clear framework for formulating the linear controller design problem and to show that many of these problems can be cast as convex optimization problems. The authors emphasize the determination of performance limits, which are specifications that cannot be achieved with a given system and control configuration. The book is structured into four parts: 1. **A Framework for Controller Design**: Introduces the basic concepts of control engineering, including system design, control configuration, modeling, and controller design. 2. **Analytical Tools**: Discusses norms of signals and systems, geometric properties of design specifications, and the concept of closed-loop convex design specifications. 3. **Design Specifications**: Catalogs various closed-loop convex design specifications, including performance and robustness specifications. 4. **Numerical Methods**: Describes numerical methods for solving controller design problems, including analytic solutions and numerical optimization techniques. The authors highlight the importance of utilizing available computing power to design controllers effectively and argue that solving a restricted class of controller design problems is fundamentally tractable. They also emphasize the practical value of knowing the limits of performance, which can guide the design process and provide a benchmark for evaluating controller performance. The book is intended for sophisticated industrial control engineers, researchers, and students in control engineering, assuming a basic understanding of linear systems. It is not a survey of recent techniques but rather a focused exploration of the theoretical and practical aspects of linear controller design.