Developments around the freeware standard control library SLICOT

Robust and high-performance numerical software for control systems analysis and design [such as SLICOT (Subroutine Library In COntrol Theory), which is a Benelux initiative from the Working Group on Software (WGS) in cooperation with the Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG), and the RASP control engineering library, which is an initiative from the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR)] is an essential ingredient in modern computer-aided control system design. SLICOT can primarily be viewed as a mathematical library for control-theoretical computations. To avoid duplicating the implementation efforts of good-quality software existing elsewhere, WGS and DLR have agreed to integrate their libraries into a joint standard control library. Making the product freely available will ensure a wider and faster distribution of these computational tools and will make the much needed software more easily accessible to European industry in the short term. Detailed plans have been developed for the instigation of a thematic network on numerics in control, with the intention of extending the scope of cooperation to a European level.