
          Brief introduction to CtrlLAB (c)
          ---------------------------------

           Author: Professor Dingy XUE
                   Department of Automatic Control
                   Northeastern University
                   19 November, 1997

1. What is CtrlLAB?

       CtrlLAB is a group of MATLAB scripts which provide graphical
   interface to perform feedback system analysis and design tasks.

      The facilities provided by CtrlLAB are:
       a) model entering, including SIMULINK modeling
       b) model display
       c) system state space realisation
       d) model reduction using different algorithms
       e) system analysis in frequency, complex and time domain
       f) graphical display and figure editing and manipulation
       g) a matrix displayer and editor
       h) PID tuning and displaying facilities
       i) a great many controller design procedures are implemented

       The program is developed by Professor Dingy Xue
       email:  xued@ramm.neu.edu.cn

2. How to install CtrlLAB?

      Install the program with the provided ctrllab.zip file
   to a directory under MATLAB's toolbox directory using WinZip,
   or pkunzip software, then add the path to matlabrc.m file.

      If the users are using Windows 95, it is advised to use
   WinZip to extract the program to keep the lower-upper case
   in file names.

3. How to run CtrlLAB?

      Type 'ctrllab' under the MATLAB prompt, and a graphical
   user interface with menus will be shown.  The user has to
   enter the plant model and other models, if any, first, and
   then the analysis tasks can be performed.

      To enter a model, the user can either press a relevant
   button in the block diagram, or to do so from the Model
   menu in the program.

      All the facilities provided in CtrlLAB can be accessed
   using the graphical user interface.

4. More about CtrlLAB

      CtrlLAB's original name is CtrlCAI, and there is a manual
   file CtrlLAB.ps with the kit, which describes the program in
   details.  For old user of CtrlLAB (or earlier CtrlCAI), the
   user needs to read history.txt file provided to see what is
   new to CtrlLAB.

5. Portability to Other Machines

      CtrlLAB is written on PC and although it may run on other 
   platforms such as SPARC, there may be bugs in the following
   1) There might be un-matched lower-upper case names, although
      care has been taken to keep them consistence.
   2) The font names used here are for PC Windows (3.1 or 95)
      and you may find some of them not supported on other
      platforms
   3) Some of the dialog boxes (for instance, uisetfont) are 
      currently only available on Macs and PCs.
   4) Others.  Since the program is not fully tested on other
      platforms.  
     
6. About the Manual

      The manual, CtrlLABDoc.ps, is compressed into the Manual.ZIP 
   file.  The up-to-date version of the document is prepared in Chinese.

      It should be printed via GhostView since the *.eps graphical 
   files have been included into it.

      A lecture notes which covers most of the theoretical topics in
   CtrlLAB is written and the contents (txt or PS) of it is available
   from the web site:
      http://
   Authors: Professor Dingy Xue (Northeastern University, PR China), 
            Professor Derek Atherton (Sussex Univ, U.K.), 
            Professor Xinhe Xu (NEU, PRC)
   Title:   Feedback Control Systems: Analysis and Design using MATLAB
   Language: English

7. Other Toolboxes Used
   Apart from MATLAB itself, the Control Systems Toolbox and SIMULINK
     are extensively used.  For robust control system design problems,
     the Robust Control Toolbox is used.
   The extra Font:  The brushsci.ttf font file should be installed to 
     windows directory to make the layout pretty.

8. Copyright and Declaration of CtrlLAB

      CtrlLAB can be freely distributed in its current unmodified 
   files.

      No event will the author and his Department be liable for 
   any special, incidental, indirect, or consequential damages of 
   any kind, or damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, 
   or profits. 

For bugs, suggestions and comments about CtrlLAB, please send emails
to me at xued@ramm.neu.edu.cn.  It is the authors' intention to create 
a program which can implement the tools in Control as much as in MATLAB 
as possible, without requesting the user to enter a single MATLAB
command or invoke a single function by hand.
