The CSAD Toolbox is a set of MATLAB M-files created by the authors to help students solve control system problems encountered in junior- and senior-level courses. This book describing its features is intended only as a supplemental text, and the authors assume that a current version of MATLAB (3.5 or 4.0) is available to the students along with documentation.

After short chapters on installation and the user interface to CSAD, the second part of the book has a chapter reviewing the mathematics of control systems, then one each on state-variable, time-domain, and frequency-domain analysis. A final chapter discusses the design of some specific types of controllers. There are exercises at the end of each chapter in the second part.

In the second edition, the organization of this text is unchanged, but each chapter has been rewritten. The discussions of theory are now mingled with explanations of the software; in fact, they merely serve to establish terminology. No more detail is necessary, since the student will have a course text and lectures from which to learn the theory.

The software itself is a set of functions that aid the student in setting up and analyzing systems. Version 2 of the software has several new functions, some replacing functions from version 1. The new functions have more options and are, in general, more focused on solving design problems. CSAD is a simple addition to MATLAB, and should be easy to learn for students familiar with MATLAB and its module for control systems.