Definition Nonlinear control systems are those control systems where nonlinearity plays a significant role, either in the controlled process (plant) or in the controller itself. Nonlinear plants arise naturally in numerous engineering and natural systems, including mechanical and biological systems, aerospace and automotive control, industrial process control, and many others. Nonlinear control theory is concerned with the analysis and design of nonlinear control systems. It is closely related to nonlinear systems theory in general, which provides its basic analysis tools. Characteristics Numerous methods and approaches exist for the analysis and design of nonlinear control systems. A brief and informal description of some prominent ones is given next. Full details may be found in the textbooks [1-6], and in the Control Handbook [7]. Most of the theory and practice focuses on feedback control. A typical layout of a feedback control system is shown in Figure 1.
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