Singular perturbations and time-scale techniques were introduced to control engineering in the late 1960s and have since become common tools for the modeling, analysis, and design of control systems. In this SIAM Classics edition of the 1986 book, the original text is reprinted in its entirety (along with a new preface), providing once again the theoretical foundation for representative control applications.

This book continues to be essential in many ways. It lays down the foundation of singular perturbation theory for linear and nonlinear systems, it presents the methodology in a pedagogical way that is not available anywhere else, and it illustrates the theory with many solved examples, including various physical examples and applications. So while new developments may go beyond the topics covered in this book, they are still based on the methodology described here, which continues to be their common starting point.