PREFACE

This CD-ROM contains the technical material accepted for presentation at the 15th Triennial World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), held in Barcelona. This, the first IFAC World Congress of this millennium, is recognized as an outstanding event for the worldwide community of control systems science and engineering. It is a great pleasure and honour for Spanish control researchers and engineers to host the Congress in Spain.

The response from the international control community to the call for papers has been strong. The International Program Committee (IPC) received 2509 submitted papers, 72 invited session proposals and 11 panel discussion proposals from 68 countries. We were impressed by the high quality of the submissions. The technical program for the Congress covers a broad range of topics, with sessions arranged into nine Congress Clusters subdivided into 47 technical areas. Reviews were conducted by all of the IFAC Technical Committees, with the help of hundreds of experts worldwide. By this rigorous review procedure, 1757 papers, seven plenary lectures, 51 invited session proposals and seven panel discussion proposals were selected, originating from 63 countries. We believe that the program will provide significant contributions to each of the subject areas of the congress tracks.

The plenary speakers include some of the world's most outstanding authorities in various control fields. The topics of the plenary lectures include surveys, prospects and introductions to advanced control theory and applications. Following the plenary addresses, the congress program is composed of 1757 papers, to be presented in 240 lecture-type sessions and 12 poster-type sessions. The paper sessions are supplemented by six milestone sessions. No distinction is made between poster papers and lecture papers in the Proceedings.

The CD-ROM is provided to each registered participant as part of the registration material. The official Congress Proceedings will be marketed by the IFAC Publisher, Elsevier Science Ltd, in both print and CD forms, after the Congress. Further details may be obtained from ifacpubs@elsevier.com

We expect that the reader, whether a participant in the Congress, a researcher or a practising engineer, will find this CD useful, informative and helpful for their work.

Finally, we would like to thank all IPC members, all IFAC Technical Committee chairs and all reviewers for their valuable contribution to the Congress. We are also indebted to all our friends from different parts of the world for their support, help and useful suggestions.

Eduardo F. Camacho     L. Basañez     J.A. de la Puente