© National Instruments Corporation 1-1 Xmath Control Design Module
1
Introduction
The Control Design Module (CDM) is a complete library of classical and
modern control design functions that provides a flexible, intuitive control
design framework.
This chapter starts with an outline of the manual and some user notes. It
also contains a tutorial that presents several problems and uses a variety of
approaches to obtain solutions. The tutorial is designed to familiarize you
with many of the functions in this module.

Using This Manual

This manual provides an overview of different aspects of linear systems
analysis, describes the Xmath Control Design function library, and gives
examples of how you can use Xmath to solve problems rapidly. It also
explains how you can represent and analyze linear systems in Xmath and
provides a brief syntax listing and supplementary algorithm information for
each CDM function. Detailed descriptions of function inputs, outputs, and
behavior are provided in the Xmath Help.

Document Organization

This manual includes the following chapters:
• Chapter 1, Introduction, starts with an outline of the manual and some
user notes. It also contains a tutorial that presents several problems and
uses a variety of approaches to obtain solutions. The tutorial is
designed to familiarize you with many of the functions in this module.
• Chapter 2, Linear System Representation, describes the types of linear
systems that can be represented within Xmath. In addition, it discusses
the implementation of systems as objects–data structures
encompassing different information fields. The Xmath functions for
creating a system or extracting its components are part of the general
Xmath package and not exclusive to the Control Design Module, but
they are used so extensively that they warrant a detailed treatment here.
This chapter also discusses the functions you can use to check for