The purpose of the book is to summarize Lyapunov design techniques for nonlinear systems and to raise important issues concerning large-signal robustness and performance. The authors have been the first to address some of these issues, and they report their findings in this text. For example, they identify two potential sources of excessive control effort in Lyapunov design techniques and show how such effort can be greatly reduced.

The researcher who wishes to enter the field of robust nonlinear control could use this book as a source of new research topics. For those already active in the field, the book may serve as a reference to a recent body of significant work. Finally, the design engineer faced with a nonlinear control problem will benefit from the techniques presented here.