Control theory is a branch of applied mathematics that deals with the design of control policies for actuated dynamical systems. Control engineering is a cross-discipline field that applies control theory to a wide range of systems such as industrial plants, aerospace, robotics and more.
Map by Brian Douglas
Except for some of the books, all resources provided here should be free, available online and should not require logging in to any service. All credit goes to the awesome authors of these resources.
If you know some awesome free control resources that deserve to be on this list, feel free to post them in this issue or make a pull-request. See contribution guidelines.
Start with this: For a great historical background and introduction to control, you should definitely read Karl J. Åstrøm and P.R. Kumar, 2014, Control: A perspective (if you don't have access to the paper through this link, Google for the pdf). A presentation on the same topic can be found on YouTube here.
| Title | Author | Topic | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feedback Systems: An Introduction for Scientists and Engineers (free online) | Karl Johan Åstrøm and R. Murry | Control | 2020 |
| Control Theory, 2nd Edition | J.R. Leigh | Control | 2004 |
| The Fundamentals of Control Theory (free online) | Brian Douglas | Control | 2019 |
| Underactuated Robotics (free online) | Russ Tedrake | Control | 2020 |
| Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos | Steven Strogatz | Nonlinear dynamics | 2014 |
| Nonlinear Systems | Hassan K. Khalil | Nonlinear control | 2002 |
| Optimal Control Theory: An Introduction | Donald Kirk | Optimal control | 2012 |
| Merging Optimization and Control (free online) | Bjarne Foss & Tor Aksel Heirung | Optimal control | 2013 |
| Dynamic Programming and Optimal Control | Dimitri Bertsekas | Optimal Control | 2017 |
| Robust Adaptive Control (free online) | Ioannou P. and J. Sun | Control | 1996 |
| A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation (free online) | Richard M. Murray et. al | Robotics | |
| Robot Modeling and Control | Mark W. Spong | Robotics | 2005 |
| Controls Engineering in the FIRST Robotics Competition (free online) | Tyler Veness | Robotics | 2022 |
These authors cover multiple topics in control on their websites and/or YouTube channels.
- Brian Douglas | Engineering Media - Great lectures which can be found on his YouTube channel.
- Steve Brunton - Great lectures which can be found on his YouTube channel.
- APMonitor - Created by John Hedengren who also has a YouTube channel.
- MATLAB
- Control Systems Academy - Includes several interactive simulators.
- Reflections of a Process Control Practitioner
- Studywolf blog: control, RL and neuroscience
While this list is somewhat in chronological learning order, many of the courses/playlists advance beyond topics lower down the list as you work through them. So don't get too caught up in the ordering here.
| Resource | Author | Topic | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Control bootcamp | Steve Brunton | Control | YouTube playlist |
| Classical Control Theory | Brian Douglas | Control | YouTube playlist |
| Control Systems in Practice | Brian Douglas | Control | YouTube playlist |
| APMonitor: Process dynamics and control | John Hedengren | Control | Online course |
| Modelling and simulation of dynamical systems | aa4cc | Modelling and simulation | YouTube playlist |
| Trimming and linearization | Brian Douglas | Modelling and simulation | YouTube playlist |
| Understanding PID Control | Brian Douglas | Control | YouTube playlist |
| Quadcopter simulation and control | Brian Douglas | Control | YouTube playlist |
| State Space Control | Brian Douglas | Control | YouTube playlist |
| Understanding Kalman filter | MATLAB | State estimation | YouTube playlist |
| Sensor Fusion and Tracking | Brian Douglas | State estimation | YouTube playlist |
| Cornell MAE: Nonlinear dynamics and chaos | Steven Strogatz | Nonlinear dynamics | YouTube playlist |
| MIT: Nonlinear systems | Jean-Jaques Slotine | Nonlinear dynamics | YouTube playlist |
| Nonlinear Control Systems | Topperly | Nonlinear control | YouTube playlist |
| ITK NTNU: Nonlinear Control Systems | Kristin Y. Pettersen | Nonlinear control | YouTube playlist |
| MIT 6.832: Underactuated Robotics (slides, videos, online book) | Russ Tedrake | Nonlinear control | University course |
| Robust control | Brian Douglas | Robust control | YouTube playlist |
| Optimal and robust control | aa4cc | Optimal and robust control | YouTube playlist |
| Autonomous navigation | Brian Douglas | Robotics | YouTube playlist |
| Georgia Tech: Robot control Corsera (2013) | Magnus Egerstedt | Robotics | YouTube playlist |
| Berkeley CS287: Advanced Robotics (slides, videos) | Pieter Abbeel | Robotics | University course |
| Data-driven control with machine learning | Steve Brunton | Data-driven control | YouTube playlist |
Bonus: MIT OpenCourseWare offers free online courses. Here are their courses tagged with Control.
- MATLAB
- Matthew Kelly's tutorials
- Simple-pendulum
- PD-control
- Trajectory optimization
- Cart-pole dynamics
- Numerical simulation