BOOK REVIELWS
Control-oriented system identification: an H, approach
Jie Chen and Guoxiang Gu
John Wiley & Sons Inc.
2000,421pp.,€54.95
ISBN 0 47132 048 X
The objective is to present methods for
identification of models from experi-
mental data in the form required
for robust control by design by H ,
methods; that is in the form of a
nominal deterministic plant model plus
an explicit deterministic uncertainty
model. The book brings together at
graduate level many results other-
wise scattered in a large number of
sources. Prerequisites are fluency in
mathematical analysis and operator
theory and some familiarity with robust
control theory.
The book is written at a fair
degree of mathematical sophistica-
tion, although helpful insight into
the underlying context is frequently
provided. The text is concerned with
H, identification and model validation
with attention being largely restricted
to linear time-invariant systems. What
the authors consider to be the mathe-
matical prerequisites are summarised
in the short but pleasingly written
chapter two; mostly the material there
is a tutorial attempt to establish a
unifying operator-theoretic setting in
which control and identification
problems can be represented as
mappings between appropriate
function spaces.
When the treatment proper begins
and H , identification starts to be
discussed, it is first explained very
simply in a familiar conventional
transfer function setting. There is then
a progression covering untuned and
tuned linear algorithms, two-stage
nonlinear algorithms, nonlinear inter-
polatory algorithms, identification in
the time domain and identification of
continuous time systems. Everywhere,
plentiful comments are clear and well
written. For instance, in the summary
of chapter 7: ‘The time domain
approach developed in this chapter is
an identification plan directly mapping
time series input-output observations
to a stable identified model. This
plan is similar to but also different from
the frequency domain algorithms
presented in earlier chapters. Moti-
COMPUTING & CONTROL ENGINEERING JOURNAL FEBRUARY 2001
vated by classical interpolation theory,
it too requires solving an analytic
function interpolation problem, seek-
ing to match the power series of the
identified model to the available time
domain data’.
The remainder of the book proper
is taken up with chapters on model
validation. On this topic the authors’
comment is typical of their style
throughout: ‘It is intuitively clear.. .that
a model that has not been invalidated
by the presently available data, may
well be so by future data ...and the
primary utility of a model validation
test is actually to invalidate a model’.
There are appendices on informa-
tion-based and computational com-
plexity and on LMI (linear matrix
inequality) programming. A good set
of supporting and forward-pointing
The road to the unified software
development process
lvar Jacobson, revised and updated by
Stefan Bylund
Cambridge University Press
2000,358pp.,€24.95
lSBN 0 52178 7742
lvar Jacobson is one of the creators of
the Unified Modelling Language (UML).
Here we have a collection of his
articles from the past decade or so,
compiled by a former colleague,
Stefan Bylund. The articles are inter-
spersed with recent interviews given by
Jacobson, which provide a reflective
commentary.
Jacobson reminds us that UMLis
now ‘supported by the whole software
industry’. The language forms part of
the Unified Software Development
Process, and the book tells the story
of how the language and the process
came to exist. We learn that the
roots of UML can be traced back to
Jacobson’s days at Ericsson in Sweden
in the late 1960s. As one of the
designers of a precursor to the AXE
telephone switch, he pressed for
the adoption of object-oriented design
methods-in the face of strong
opposition. He was vindicated by the
subsequent success of the AXE
project, and the fact that, as he claims,
references is supplied. The text is well
supported by illustrative examples and
exercises.
Unusually and admirably in a book
written at an advanced theoretical
level, the authors never lose sight
of engineering realities. Well-written
paragraphs explaining the material or
relating it to a wider mathematical or
engineering context abound through-
out the book and are one of its great
strengths.
This is a valuable, pleasingly well-
written book that requires a knowledge
of the function-analytic mathematics
that is routinely taught to engineers
at continental universities, but that
is more of a rarity in UK engineering
courses.
PROF. RON LEIGH
Brunel University
the design methods will outlive the
product several times. Many features
of UML, such as class, collaboration,
sequence and state charts, and
activity diagrams, have direct counter-
parts in the methods used for AXE.
Another offspring was the CClTT
language, SDL, but for various reasons
this has not received mainstream
adoption as an object-based modelling
technique. The Unified Process (which
now exists as a commercial offering
from the Rational Software Corpora-
tion) emerged from an earlier product
known as Objectory. This, in turn, was
derived from a textbook version called
OOSE.
In a 1993 article, appearing in an
early chapter of the book, Jacobson
made a plea for a ‘ceasefire in the
methods war’, claiming that 27 differ-
ent object-oriented design methods
were in existence. The solution was not
for a committee to impose some
standard from above (as had been
done by the CCITT for SDL) but for an
’ad hoc group of knowledgeable and
motivated people who believe that
sound agreements are necessary’ to
be formed. By the end of the book, he
has argued that UML-used in
conjunction with the tools of the
,/‘ 47‘\\\
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REVIEWS
Unified Process-has answered the
plea. Along the way there are useful
tutorial inserts and some entertaining
polemic.
As one might expect, given the
scope of the book, the UML drum is
beaten loud and clear. Readers who
are ambivalent about the language
might feel this is not to their taste.
However, anyone involved in the design
of large software projects should find
something of interest here.
M. H. BARTON
University of Bristol
. Distributed
object
architectures
with CORBA
Henry Balen
Cambridge University Press
2000, 285pp., €24.95
ISBN 0 52165 418 1
Distributed systems are becoming
more and more commonplace in
today’s society with the vast increase
in the size, power and usage of
networks, such as the Internet. As
these systems become larger and
R
This is a free listing. Please send
J details of events for possible inclusion
to the Managing Editor, Computing &
Control Engineering Journal, IEE, Michael
Faraday House, Six Hills Way,
Stevenage, Herts. SG1 2AY, UK,
E-maiI : ccej@iee.org.uk.
14th-16th March 2001
5th European Conference on Software
maintenance and re-engineering,
Lisbon, Portugal. Contact: F. Brito e
Abreu, INESC, Groupo de Engenharia de
Software, Rua Alves Redo1 9, 1000 029
Lisboa, Portugal.
Tel: + 3 5 1 2 1 3 1 0 0263
Fax: + 3 5 1 2 1 3 1 4 5843
E-mail: fba@inesc.pt
2lst March 2001
UKACC Lecture, Royal Aeronautical
Society, London. Contact: Sophie
Curwen, IEE Savoy Place, London, WC2R
OBL, UK.
more complex, so the need to design
such systems in a logical and con-
sistent fashion arises. The aim of this
book is to facilitate the design of such
distributed systems using distributed
object architectures with CORBA.
CORBA (Common Object Request
Broker Architecture) is the industry
standard for the specification and
design of distributed objects for
complex, distributed systems.
The book itself is not intended as
an in-depth description of the CORBA
standard but is aimed more at prac-
titioners who may want to take this
technology forward in some useful
way. The focus, therefore, is on high-
level descriptions rather than low-level
details and this is carried out in a very
clear and effective manner. Balen
manages to avoid too many technical
details whilst pitching the information
at such a level as to give the reader a
good understanding of the technology.
The layout of the chapters is simple
and logical and covers all key areas of
distributed systems and a wide range
of useful topics, including: an intro-
duction and overview of architectures,
distributed objects and all the key
concepts involved with these areas.
Also included are many examples that
relate to real-life systems, including
the Internet and related subjects such
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7240 1 8 7 1
E-mail: scurwen@iee.0rg.uk
27th-29th March 2001
DCC 2001-Data Compression
Conference, Snowbird, UT, USA.
Contact: Dr. James A. Storer, Computer
Science Department, Brandeis
University, Waltham, MA 02254, USA.
Tel: + 1 7 8 1 7 3 6 2714
Fax: + 1 7 8 1 7 3 6 2741
E-mail: storer@cs.brandeis.edu
2nd4th April 2001
OT2001, Oxford, UK. Contact: The
Events Office, IEE, Savoy Place, London
WC2R OBL, UK.
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7344 5426
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7497 3633
E-maiI: event s@iee.org.uk
2nd4th April 2001
Conference on Information technology:
coding and computing, Las Vegas, NV,
COMPUTING & CONTROL ENGINEERING JOURNAL FEBRUARY 2001
as XML and firewalls.
Two main approaches are used for
conveying information to the reader
in a clear and unambiguous fashion-
using text IDL (interface description
language) descriptions and graphical
notation using the UML (unified model-
ling language). For the most part, this
is successful; however, a reader with
experience of neither IDL nor UML may
have difficulty understanding some of
the figures and tables. The figures are
clear, but the UML syntax used is
sometimes not explained clearly and,
in some cases, digresses from official
UML syntax. Another problem is that
not all of the diagrams in the book are
UML (some are simple block-diagram
style models) that could lead to
confusion for non-UML readers. The
IDL suffers from the same problem
that the descriptions may be viewed as
inadequate for a non-expert. Having
said this, however, these are minor
quibbles on what, overall, stands out
as a very good introduction to the
practical and effective use of distri-
buted objects and CORBA. This book
is, therefore, recommended as an
excellent practitioner’s guide to an
interesting and very complex field.
JON HOLT
Brass Bullet Ltd.
USA. Contact: Prof. Shahram Latifi,
Dept. of Elec. Engrg., University of
Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154 4026,
USA.
Tel: +1702 895 4016
Fax: + 1 7 0 2 895 4075
E-mail: latifi@ee.univ.edu
2nd-6th April 2001
17th International Conference on Data
engineering, Heidelberg, Germany.
Contact: A. Reuter, Schloss-
Wolfsbrunnenweg 33, 69118,
Heidelberg, Germany.
Tel:.+49 6221 533 200
Fax: +49 6221 533 298
E-mail: Andreas.Reuter@eml.villa-
bosch.de
9th-11th April 2001
EASE 2001-5th International
Conference on Empirical assessment
and evaluation in software engineering,
Staffordshire, UK.