Industrial processes such as long-wall coal cutting and me- tal rolling, together with certain areas of 2D signal and image processing, exhibit a repetitive, or multipass struc- ture characterized by a series of sweeps of passes through a known set of dynamics. The output, or pass profile, produced on each pass explicitly contributes to that produced on the text. This interpass interaction can lead to the growth of oscillations, and hence a form of instability, in the se- quence of pass profiles which require control strategies that explicitly incorporate the essential repetitive struc- ture of the process in their decision making. This monograph is unique in developing the new techniques necessary for sy- stematic control systems design in the form of a stability theory and computationally feasible stability tests based on finite simulations and polynomial analysis. Its development requires a basic knowledge of linear frequency domain and state-space theory and a knowledge of basic functional ana- lysis would be beneficial. The text is aimed at researchers in the area of control and systems theory and should also be of interest to those working in the related area of signal and image processing.
