Control in an Information Rich World

R. Murray, K. Astrom, S. Boyd, R. Brockett, and G. Stein

Final report of the Panel on Future Directions in Control, Dynamics, and Systems.
Published as Future Directions in Control in an Information-Rich World, in IEEE Control Systems Magazine, 23(2):20-33, April 2003.
Also published by SIAM as a book: Control in an Information Rich World: Report of the Panel on Future Directions in Control, Dynamics, and Systems, ISBN 0-89871-528-8.

The field of control provides the principles and methods used to design physical and information systems that maintain desirable performance by sensing and automatically adapting to changes in the environment. As we begin the 21st Century, the opportunities to apply control principles and methods are exploding. New developments in this increasingly information rich world will require a significant expansion of the basic tool sets of control. This article summarizes the main findings and recommendations of the Panel on Future Directions in Control, Dynamics, and Systems, which has recently released its report. The report spells out some of the prospects for control in the current and future technological environment, describes the role the field will play in military, commercial, and scientific applications over the next decade, and recommends actions required to enable new breakthroughs in engineering and technology through application of control research.