Moving on from earlier stochastic and robust control paradigms, this book introduces the  fundamentals of probabilistic methods in the analysis and design of uncertain systems. The use of randomized algorithms, guarantees a reduction in the computational complexity of classical robust control algorithms and in the conservativeness of methods likeH-infinity control.

Features:

&bull comprehensive treatment of sample generation, including consideration of the difficulties involved in obtaining independent and identically distributed samples;

• applications in congestion control of high-speed communications networks and the stability of quantized sampled-data systems.

This monograph will be of interest to theorists concerned with robust and optimal control techniques and to all control engineers dealing with system uncertainties.

Roberto Tempo is one of the next generation of 'top brass' in the control research community. He is currently the director of research at the National Research Council of Italy. Like any leading academic, he has the usual 'long-as-your-arm' string of publications, both in refereed journals and at conferences. This is his second book, the first being an edited volumeRobustness in Identification and Control. He is a regular member of program committees for several IFAC, IEEE, IEE and EUCA (European Union Control Association) conferences including Conference on Decision and Control (of which he will be program chair when the conference joins with ECC in Seville 2005) and is a fellow of the IEEE. He has been Associate Editor ofIEEE Transaction on Automatic Control and is at present the Deputy Editor-in-Chief ofAutomatica the most widely read and respected journal in the field of theoretical control.

Giuseppe Calafiore is an up-and coming academic who has established a reputation on both sides of the Atlantic with frequent periods as a visiting scholar at both Stanford University and UC Berkeley.