Proceedings
of the
20th World
The International
Federation
of Congress
Automatic Control
Proceedings
of
20th
World
The
International
Federation
of Congress
Automatic Control
Proceedings
of the
the
20th9-14,
World
Congress
Toulouse,
France,
July
2017
The International
International
Federation
of Congress
Automatic Control
Control
Proceedings
of the
20th9-14,
World
Toulouse,
France,
July
2017
The
Federation
of
Automatic
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
Toulouse,
France,
July
The
International
of Automatic Control
Toulouse,
France,Federation
July 9-14,
9-14, 2017
2017
Toulouse, France, July 9-14, 2017
ScienceDirect
Rudolf
E. Kalman:
Life
and Works
IFAC PapersOnLine
50-1 (2017)
631–636
Rudolf
E.
Kalman:
Life
and
Works
Rudolf
Life
and
Works
Rudolf E.
E. Kalman:
Kalman:
Life
and
Works
1
Vladimír Life
Kučera
Rudolf E. Kalman:
and
Works
1
Vladimír Kučera

Vladimír
Kučera11
Vladimír
 Kučera
1 and Cybernetics,
Czech Institute of Informatics,
Robotics,

Vladimír
 Kučera
Czech
Institute
of
Informatics,
Robotics,
and Cybernetics,
CzechInstitute
Technical
University
Prague, Czech
Republic
 inRobotics,
Czech
of
Informatics,
and
Czech
Institute
of
Informatics,
Robotics,
and Cybernetics,
Cybernetics,
Czech
Technical
University
in
Prague,
Czech
Republic
(Tel:
420-224354102;
e-mail:
vladimir.kucera@cvut.cz)
Czech
Institute
of Informatics,
and Cybernetics,
Czech
Technical
University
inRobotics,
Prague,
Republic
Czech
Technical
University
Prague, Czech
Czech
Republic
(Tel:
420-224354102;
e-mail:invladimir.kucera@cvut.cz)
Czech
Technical
University
in
Prague,
Czech
Republic
(Tel:
420-224354102;
e-mail:
vladimir.kucera@cvut.cz)
(Tel: 420-224354102; e-mail: vladimir.kucera@cvut.cz)
(Tel: 420-224354102; e-mail: vladimir.kucera@cvut.cz)
Abstract: Rudolf Emil Kalman passed away peacefully on 2 July 2016, at his home in Gainesville,
Abstract:
Rudolf
Emil
Kalman
passed
away
peacefully
onof2 an
July
2016,
atpaper
his home
in
Gainesville,
Florida. HeRudolf
was 86Emil
years
old. His
passing
marks
the endon
era.
Thisat
is to in
remember
and
Abstract:
Kalman
passed
away
peacefully
2
July
2016,
his
home
Gainesville,
Abstract:
Rudolf
Emil
Kalman
passed
away
peacefully
on
2
July
2016,
at
his
home
in
Gainesville,
His
passing
marks
the
end
of
an
era.
This
paper
is
to
remember
and
Florida.
He
was
86
years
old.
celebrate
the
life,
the
works,
and
the
impact
of
a
giant
whose
influence
extends
over
several
fields
and
Abstract:
Rudolf
Emil
Kalman
passed
away
peacefully
onof
2 an
July
2016,
atpaper
his home
in
Gainesville,
His
passing
marks
the
end
era.
This
is
to
remember
and
Florida.
He
was
86
years
old.
His
passing
marks
the
end
of
an
era.
This
paper
is
to
remember
and
Florida.
He
was
86
years
old.
celebrate
the
life,
the
works,
and
the
impact
of
a
giant
whose
influence
extends
over
several
fields
who
is
considered
the
founder
of
the
modern
theory
of
systems
and
control.
the whose
end of influence
an era. This
paper
is several
to remember
Florida.
old.
celebrateHe
thewas
life, 86
theyears
works,
andHis
thepassing
impact marks
of aa giant
giant
whose
influence
extends
over
several
fields and
celebrate
the
life,
the
works,
and
the
impact
of
extends
over
fields
and
who is considered
founder
of the
modern
theory
of systems
and control.
celebrate
the
life,
the
works,Federation
and
themodern
impact
of a giant
whose
influence
extends
over
fields and
who
is
founder
of
theory
of
and
control.
© 2017,
IFAC
(International
of Automatic
Control)
Hosting
by Elsevier
Ltd.
All several
rights reserved.
who
is considered
considered
the
founder
of the
the
modern
theory
of systems
systems
and
control.
Keywords:
Rudolf
E. Kalman
who
is considered
founder of the modern theory of systems and control.
Keywords:
Rudolf the
E. Kalman
Keywords:

Keywords: Rudolf
Rudolf E.
E. Kalman
Kalman
Keywords:
Rudolf E. Kalman
1. LIFE AND
WORKS
Before the award of his doctorate Kalman had begun to

1.
LIFE
AND
WORKS
Before
the
award of
his doctorate
Kalman
begunand
to
publish
influential
papers.
For example
in had
Physical
1. LIFE AND WORKS
Before
the
award
of
his
Kalman
had
begun
to
1. LIFE AND WORKS
Before
the
award
of
his doctorate
doctorate
Kalman
had
begunand
to
publish
influential
papers.
For
example
in
Physical
mathematical
mechanisms
of
instability
in
nonlinear
Rudolf
1.
LIFEEmil
ANDKalman
WORKSwas born in Budapest, Hungary on 19 Before
the
award
of
his
doctorate
Kalman
had
begun
to
publish
influential
papers.
For
example
in
Physical
and
publish
influential
papers.
For
example
in
Physical
and
mathematical
mechanisms
of instability
in 1957,
nonlinear
automatic
control
systems
(Trans.
ASME,in79,
553Rudolf
EmilHeKalman
was in
born
in Budapest,
Hungary
on 19
May
1930.
was
raised
Hungary
and
was
the
product
of
publish
influential
papers.
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example
Physical
and
mathematical
mechanisms
of
instability
in
nonlinear
Rudolf
Emil
was
born
in
Hungary
on
19
mechanisms
instability
in 1957,
nonlinear
automatic
control
systems
ASME,
79,
553Rudolf
EmilHeKalman
Kalman
wasschool
born
in Budapest,
Budapest,
Hungary
on his
19
563) he gives
(quoting
from (Trans.
a of
review
by Horace
Trent)
... a
May
1930.
was raised
in
Hungary
and
the
product
of mathematical
aRudolf
remarkable
secondary
system.
Hewas
was
taken
by
automatic
control
systems
(Trans.
ASME,
79,
553mechanisms
of
instability
in 1957,
nonlinear
EmilHe
was in
born
in Budapest,
Hungary
on 19
May
1930.
HeKalman
was raised
raised
in
Hungary
and
was
the
product
of mathematical
automatic
control
systems
(Trans.
ASME,
79,
1957,
553563)
he
gives
(quoting
from
a
review
by
Horace
Trent)
... a
May
1930.
was
Hungary
and
was
the
product
of
discussion
of
the
stability
problem
for
control
systems
afather
remarkable
secondary
school
system.
HeWorld
was taken
by
his lucid
from
the
torments
of
the
Second
War
to
the
control
systems
(Trans.
ASME,
79, 1957,
553563)
he
gives
(quoting
from
aa review
by
Horace
Trent)
...
May
1930. Hesecondary
was raisedschool
in Hungary
and
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product
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aa remarkable
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by
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563)
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review
by
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Trent)
... aa
a
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problem
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control
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remarkable
secondary
school
system.
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containing
one(quoting
orofmore
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father from
torments
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Statesthe
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563)
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... a
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stability
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remarkable
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was
taken
by
his
father
from
the
torments
of
the
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World
War
to
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lucid
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problem
for
control
systems
containing
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is
written
in
a
father
from
the
torments
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to
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United States when he was 13.
lucid
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research
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style
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Kalman
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engineering
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of
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discussion
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systems
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in was
his
father’
footsteps.
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studied
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systems.
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isinvariant
limited
those
which
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engineering
at awarded
the
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Institute
of continued
Technology,
be
treated
asdiscussion
ifwith
theytime
were
made toup
of asystems
finiteThus,
number
of
where
he
was
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S.B.
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and
to
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parts
parameters.
such
a
follow
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engineering
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of
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Institute
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up
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finite
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where
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and
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time
invariant
parameters.
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undertake
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leading
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system
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theytime
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For
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University
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1955
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space
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Professor
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Synthesis
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information
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University
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1958
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doctoral
thesis
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and
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Linear
Systems
information
about
the
possible
existence
of
nodes,
foci,
and
Operating
on
Randomly
Sampled
Data
in
1958
and
was
saddle
points.
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these
analyses
he
makes
use
of
the
awarded
a
D.Sci.
in
that
year.
method
of
virtual
critical
points.
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of
the
main
goals
of
the
doctoral
thesis
Analysis and
Synthesis
Systems
Operating
on
Sampled
Data
1958
was
about
the possible
existence
ofmakes
nodes,use
foci,
and
saddle
points.
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these
analyses
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of
the
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on Randomly
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Sampled
Data ofin
in Linear
1958 and
and
was information
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points.
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these
analyses
he
makes
use
of
the
awarded a D.Sci.
in that year.
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of
virtual
critical
points.
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of
the
main
goals
of
paper
is
to
propose
a
classification
of
the
types
of
Operating
on Randomly
Sampled
Data in
1958interest
and was
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that year.
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points.
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Kalman’s
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One
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themakes
main
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the
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propose
apoints.
classification
of
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types
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rise
to
instabilities.
awarded a D.Sci. in that year. Kalman’s
of virtual
critical a
One of the of
main
of the
paper
is
to
propose
classification
the
types
of
early was
interest
in method
control systems
evident.
paper
is
to which
propose
apoints.
classification
of
thegoals
types
of
nonlinearities
can give
rise to instabilities.
Kalman’s
early
interest
in
Kalman’s
early
interest
in paper
is
to
propose
a
classification
of
the
types
of
nonlinearities
which
can
give
rise
to
instabilities.
control
systems
was
evident.
His
research
was
based
upon
nonlinearities
which
can
give
rise
to
instabilities.
From 1957 to 1958 Kalman was employed as a staff engineer
Kalman’s
early
interest
in
control
systems
was
evident.
control
systems
was
evident.
whichKalman
can
givewas
risein
toPoughkeepsie,
instabilities.
His research
was
based
upon nonlinearities
From
1957
to 1958
employed
as a staff
engineer
the
notion
of
state
variable
at
the
IBM
Research
Laboratory
N.
Y.
With
control
systems
evident.
His
research
waswas
based
upon
From 1957
to
was
employed
as
engineer
His
research
based
upon
to 1958
1958heKalman
Kalman
wasimportant
employed
as aa staff
staff
the
notion ofwas
state
at
IBM
Research
Laboratory
in
Poughkeepsie,
N. engineer
Y.toWith
representations,
andvariable
was From
R. the
W.1957
Koepcke,
made an
contribution
the
His
research
was
based
upon
the
notion
of
state
variable
From
1957
to
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Supported by the Czech
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Proceedings of the 20th IFAC World Congress
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Toulouse, France, July 9-14, 2017
After the award of his doctorate Kalman was appointed as a
Research Mathematician at the Research Institute for
Advanced Studies in Baltimore, Maryland.
only basic advance so far appears to be the theory of
information created by Shannon … and initiated the study of
the theory of control, saying … Our ultimate objective is to
answer questions of the following type: What kind and how
much information is needed to achieve a desired type of
control? What intrinsic properties characterize a given
unalterable plant as far as control is concerned?
After the Second World War, large corporations in the United
States began to create research centers in order to harness
scientific research that had been developed but not publically
shared as part of the war effort. One of these facilities was the
Research Institute for Advanced Studies of the Glenn L.
Martin Company that had commercial interests in aviation.
A focus of this particular corporate research center in
Baltimore, Maryland was mathematics. It had attracted
several outstanding mathematicians including, for example,
Solomon Lefschetz, Joseph LaSalle, Jack Hale, and Harold
Kushner.
Kalman brought into evidence the central importance of
controllability and observability in systems theory in his
famous paper Mathematical description of linear dynamical
systems (J. SIAM Control Ser. A, 1, 1963, 152-192). He
discovered that input/output data uniquely determine only a
subsystem of the given black-box linear system and that this
subsystem is the intersection of the controllable and
observable subsystems inside the black box. This was
formalized as the famous canonical structure theorem for
linear systems.
Kalman found a welcoming home and worked there from
1958 to 1964. During this time he produced a series of results
of outstanding importance.
It was also during his stay at RIAS that Kalman developed
what is perhaps his most well-known contribution, the socalled "Kalman filter". He obtained results on the discretetime (sampled data) version of this problem in late 1958, and
early 1959. He blended earlier fundamental work in filtering
by Wiener, Kolmogorov, Bode, Shannon, Pugachev and
others with the modern state-space approach and published
the paper A new approach to linear filtering and prediction
problems (Trans. ASME, Ser. D, J. Basic Engr., 1960, 82,
35-45) that proved to be of lasting importance. This result
revolutionized the field of estimation, by providing a
recursive approach to the filtering problem. His solution to
the discrete-time problem naturally led him to the
continuous-time version of the problem and in 1960-1961 he
developed, in collaboration with R. S. Bucy, the continuoustime version of the problem New results in linear filtering
and prediction theory (Trans. ASME Ser. D. J. Basic Engrg.,
83, 1961, 95-108).
He early foresaw the importance of the digital computer for
the control of complex systems and developed, with J. E.
Bertram of the IBM Research Center in Yorktown Hights, A
unified approach to the theory of sampling systems (J.
Franklin Inst., 267, 1959, 405-436). Further, he wrote jointly
with J. E. Bertram two other papers: Control system analysis
and design via the "second method" of Lyapunov. I.
Continuous-time systems (Trans. ASME, Ser. D, J. Basic
Engr., 82, 1960, 371-393) and Control system analysis and
design via the "second method" of Lyapunov. II. Discretetime systems (Trans. ASME, Ser. D, J. Basic Engr., 82, 1960,
394-400), in which he provided a comprehensive and
insightful exposure of stability theory for dynamical systems
and applied Lyapunov theory for the analysis and design of
various different control systems.
Then, in his famous paper Contributions to the theory of
optimal control (Bol. Soc. Mat. Mexicana, 5, 102-119) he
gave a complete theory of linear quadratic control systems.
He was instrumental in introducing the work of Carathéodory
in optimal control theory, and clarifying the interrelations
between Pontryagin's maximum principle and the HamiltonJacobi-Bellman equation, as well as the calculus of variations
in general. He discovered that the matrix Riccati equation
arises in the linear quadratic regulator problem as a special
case of the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation provided the
system to be controlled is represented in state-space form.
His research not only stressed mathematical generality, but in
addition it was guided by the use of the digital computer as
an integral part of the design process and of the control
system implementations.
Kalman summarizes the contributions of this first mentioned
paper as follows … The classical filtering and prediction
problem is re-examined using the Bode-Shannon
representation of random processes and the state-transition
method of analysis of dynamic systems. New results are:
(1) The formulation and methods of solution of the problem
apply without modification to stationary and nonstationary
statistics and to growing-memory and infinite-memory filters.
(2) A nonlinear difference (or differential) equation is
derived for the covariance matrix of the optimal estimation
error. From the solution of this equation the coefficients of
the difference (or differential) equation of the optimal filter
are obtained without further calculations.
In 1960 Kalman participated in the First Congress of IFAC
held in Moscow. It was at this meeting that he introduced his
fundamental discoveries and ideas, including the concepts of
controllability and observability and their relevance in control
and estimation, which were to mature during the following
decade. In his paper On the general theory of control
systems (Proc. First Congress of IFAC, Moscow, 1960, 481491) he noted that … Despite the appearance and effective
resolution of many new problems, our understanding of
fundamental aspects of control has remained superficial. The
(3) The filtering problem is shown to be the dual of the noisefree regulator problem.
The impact of Kalman filtering on all areas of applied
mathematics, engineering, and sciences has been tremendous.
The Kalman filter proved pivotal in the success of the Apollo
program that sent the first humans to the moon. The Kalman
filter, and its later extensions to nonlinear problems,
represents perhaps the most widely applied by-product of
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modern control theory. Just as examples of their diversity,
one may mention the NASA Space Shuttles, US Navy
submarines, aerospace weapons such as cruise missiles,
autopilots, seismic data processing, nuclear power plant
instrumentation, process control, weather forecasting, stock
picking, econometrics, health monitoring, medical data
processing, computer vision, traffic management and control,
positioning, tracking, navigation, and motor control. The
Kalman filter applications popularity is due to the fact that
the digital computer is effectively used in both the design
phase as well as the implementation phase. From a theoretical
point of view it brought under a common roof related
concepts of filtering and control, and the duality between
these two problems.
633
The abstract description is based on modules, which
supercede vector spaces. An excellent account of this idea is
given in the landmark book Topics in Mathematical System
Theory (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1969), which he jointly
authored with P. L. Falb and M. A. Arbib. The authors write
in the Preface … This book does not pretend to be a
systematic treatise. Rather, it aims to present a mathematical
system theory as it is today - a lively, challenging, exciting,
difficult, confused, rewarding, and largely unexplored field.
In 1971 Kalman moved to the University of Florida,
Gainesville, where he was Graduate Research Professor
jointly in the Departments of Mathematics, Electrical
Engineering, and Industrial and Systems Engineering. His
work focused on a system-theoretic approach to the
foundations of statistics, econometric modelling, and
identification, as a natural complement to his earlier studies
of minimality and realizability.
Kalman also studied the inverse problem of optimal control
theory and obtained surprising results. In his paper When is a
linear control system optimal? (Trans. ASME, Ser. D, J.
Basic Engr., 1964, 86, 51-60) he obtained a frequencydomain characterization of optimality with respect to
quadratic criteria and shown that a feedback system is
optimal if and only if its sensitivity to component variations
in the forward loop is diminished (not accentuated) by
feedback. Thus a single criterion assures optimal as well as
robust performance.
In 1964 Kalman took up the position of Professor at Stanford
University where he was associated with the departments of
Electrical Engineering, Mechanics, and Operations Research.
During that period his research efforts shifted toward the
fundamental issues associated with realization theory and
algebraic systems theory. Once more he opened up new
research avenues in a new and basic area, and his
contributions have helped shape up a new field of research in
modern system theory.
Rudolf Kalman in his office in 1974. Credit: Sontag, E. D.,
Rudolf E. Kalman and his students. IEEE Control Systems
Magazine, 87, 2010.
In his paper Irreducible realizations and the degree of a
rational matrix (J. Soc. Indust. Appl. Math., 13, 1965, 520544) Kalman showed the equivalence of two hitherto separate
lines of research, one in control theory (irreducible
realizations) and the other in network theory (degree of a
rational matrix). He proved that the degree of a proper
rational matrix Z, which is the minimal number of energystorage elements in any realization of Z, is indeed equal to the
dimension of the irreducible state space realization. He
actually constructed an irreducible realization of Z from the
Smith-McMillan form for the partial-fraction components of
Z. In the joint publication Effective construction of linear
state-variable models from input/output data (Proc. 3rd
Annual Allerton Conf. Circuit and System Theory, Urbana,
Illinois, 1965, 449-459), B. L. Ho and R. E. Kalman
described yet another algorithm for the construction of
irreducible realizations, this time based on the Taylor
expansion of Z around infinity.
The Caribbean, December 1977. R.E. Kalman and R.S. Bucy
at a conference organized on a cruise ship. Credit: Sontag, E.
D., Rudolf E. Kalman and his students. IEEE Control
Systems Magazine, 87, 2010.
Inspired by the algebraic theory of automata, Kalman
formulated an algebraic theory of linear systems. In his
Algebraic theory of linear systems (Proc. 3rd Annual
Allerton Conf. Circuit and System Theory, Urbana, Illinois,
1965, 563-577) he observed that a linear, constant, finitedimensional system possesses an abstract description, which
represents the input/output behavior of the system uniquely.
In Gainesville, he established the Center for Mathematical
System Theory, which was unique in its scope and
reputation. His superb scholarship and magnetic personality
was the heart and soul of the Center for more than two
decades, attracting the most brilliant colleagues and
contributors in control, dynamical systems, as well as many
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subjects in mathematics. The Center benefited from an
excellent and comprehensive library of which Kalman was
justly proud and where his students spent hours classifying
papers by topic.
known today, there is no such thing as a concrete i.i.d.
(independent, identically distributed) process, not because
this is not desirable, nice, or even beautiful, but because
Nature does not seem to be like that. (Historical aside: recall
that physicists had thought at one time that aether was such a
necessary, unavoidable, appealing, clear and beautiful
concept that it must perforce exist; alas, all physicists now
living had to learn that such argumentation cannot lead to
good science.) As Bertrand Russell put it at the end of his
long life devoted to philosophy, "Roughly speaking, what we
know is science and what we don't know is philosophy." In
the scientific context, but perhaps not in the applied area, I
fear statistical modelling today belongs to the realm of
philosophy.
In his last decade, Kalman returned to circuit theory in a
series of conference papers. In Algebraic invariant theory in
systems research, Lecture 1 (Proc. 21st Internat. Symp.
Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems, Groningen,
2014, 1116-1117) he announced a remarkable result
summing up the algebraic network realization theory as
follows … Every generic network is uniquely characterized
by its own family of invariants and covariants. A network
realizes an impedance if and only if they both have the same
invariants. Two different networks are globally isomorphic if
and only if they have the same invariants and covariants.
From the knowledge of the invariants and covariants of a
network it is a straightforward task to compute all possible
realizations (there may be more than one, they are all
isomorphic).
Library of the Center for Mathematical Systems Theory
Gainesville, Florida in 1982. Credit: Sontag, E. D., Rudolf E.
Kalman and his students. IEEE Control Systems Magazine,
87, 2010.
During 1969-1972 Kalman acted as a scientific consultant to
research centers in the Ecole des Mines de Paris, France.
Starting in 1973, while continuing to hold his positions at the
University of Florida, he was elected to an ad personam chair
in mathematical system theory at the Eidgenössische
Technische Hochschule in Zürich.
2. THE STUDENTS OF KALMAN
Kalman retired from the University of Florida in 1992 and
held his chair in Zürich until his statutory retirement in 1997,
when he became emeritus.
Quoting from Eduardo D. Sontag (2010) … The influence of
Kalman’s work in control theory is vast, deep, and wide. An
aspect of Kalman’s legacy that is perhaps less known is the
influence that he had on the careers of his collaborators and
students. Kalman has always been a stimulating source of
novel ideas, inspiration, and challenging problems.
Moreover, he inspired his students in the pursuit of
excellence and originality in scientific research.
Kalman's ideas on statistics were thought-provoking and he
had written a number of interesting articles on this topic after
his retirement. For example he gave an informal lecture
published as Probability and science (Nieuw Arch. Wisk.,
Ser. 4, 11, 1993), 51-66) in which he (quoting from a review
by Zeno G. Swijtink) … laments the explosive growth of
applications of probability and questions whether
probabilities exist in the real world. Randomness does, and
to capture it better he proposes a new definition: random is
not uniquely determined by simple classical rules. All
irrational numbers are said to be random under this
definition. The absence of interaction between chaos theorists
and probability theorists also shows, the author concludes,
how irrelevant the classical models of probability are to the
real world.
The distinguishing feature of Kalman’s lectures was his
emphasis on concept formation. He showed great respect for
the achievements of mathematics and he gauged his own
understanding of system theory by the mathematical depth of
the concepts he was developing.
Kalman was either the first or the second advisor of several
Ph.D. students at each of the institutions where he was a
faculty member. These students include the following:
B. L. Ho, Stanford University, 1966
Pierre Faurre, Stanford University, 1967
Anthony J. Tether, Stanford University, 1969
Patrick M. Dewilde, Stanford University, 1970
Marshall Banker, Stanford University, 1971
Yves Rouchaleau, Stanford University, 1972
Eduardo D. Sontag, University of Florida, 1976
Yutaka Yamamoto, University of Florida, 1978
Uwe Martens, ETH Zürich, 1978
Athanasios C. Antoulas, ETH Zürich, 1979
In 1995 he published Randomness and probability (Math.
Japon., 41, 1995, 41-58) and in 2002 a discussion on What is
a statistical model?: Discussion (Ann. Stat., 30, 2002, 12921294). He believes that ... the currently accepted notion of a
statistical model is not scientific; rather, it is a guess at what
might constitute (scientific) reality without the vital element
of feedback, that is, without checking the hypothesized,
postulated, wished-for, natural-looking (but in fact only
guessed) model against that reality. To be blunt, as far as is
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Fumio Hamano, University of Florida, 1979
Tsuyoshi Matsuo, Nagoya University, 1980
Pramod P. Khargonekar, University of Florida, 1981
Jaume Ribera, University of Florida, 1982
Bülent A. Özgüler, University of Florida, 1982
Tryphon T. Georgiou, University of Florida, 1983
Masaru Kamada, University of Tsukuba, 1988
Markus Spindler, ETH Zürich, 2000.
635
control engineering and since then laid the foundation for the
rapid progress of modern control theory. The Kyoto Prize is
widely regarded as the most prestigious award available in
fields which are traditionally not honored with a Nobel Prize.
He received the Steele Prize of the American Mathematical
Society in 1987. The citation reads … The ideas presented in
these papers are a cornerstone of the modern theory and
practice of systems and control. Not only have they led to
eminently useful developments, such as the Kalman-Bucy
filter, but they have contributed to the rapid progress of
systems theory, which today draws upon mathematics
ranging from differential equations to algebraic geometry.
Kalman was also a recipient of the Richard E. Bellman
Control Heritage Award in 1997, and the National Academy
of Engineering's Charles Stark Draper Prize in 2008 … for
the development and dissemination of the optimal digital
technique (known as the Kalman Filter) that is pervasively
used to control a vast array of consumer, health, commercial,
and defense products.
Frascati, Italy, 1990. (From left) E. Sontag, Y. Yamamoto, R.
E. Kalman, T. Matsuo, and A. Antoulas. Credit: Yamamoto,
Y., Rudolf Kalman – Founder of the field. Proc. 22nd
International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of
Networks and Systems, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2016.
On 7 October 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama honored
Kalman in an awards ceremony at the White House when he
presented him with the National Medal of Science, the
highest honor the United States can give for scientific
achievement.
3. AWARDS AND HONORS
Kalman was elected to the U.S. National Academy of
Sciences, the American National Academy of Engineering,
and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a
foreign member of the Hungarian, French, and Russian
Academies of Science. He was awarded many honorary
doctorates across the world. He became Fellow of the IEEE
in 1964 and Fellow of the American Mathematical Society in
2012.
Kalman received many prizes and awards that were made to
him as a consequence of his outstanding, innovative
contributions. In 1962 he was named as the Outstanding
Young Scientist of the Year by the Maryland Academy of
Sciences. He received the IEEE Medal of Honor in 1974 …
for pioneering modern methods in system theory, including
concepts of controllability, observability, filtering, and
algebraic structures. He also received the Rufus Oldenburger
Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
in 1976.
Rudolf E. Kalman receiving National Medal of Science from
President Barack Obama. Credit: Remembering Rudolf E.
Kalman. Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering,
University of Florida.
He was awarded with the
IEEE Centennial Medal in
1984. In the year 1985, he
was one of the laureates of
the Kyoto Prize, inaugurated
in that year by the Inamori
Foundation of Japan, as …
the creator of modern control
and system theory. Kalman
theory, which was established
in the early 1960s, brought a
fundamental reformation to
4. REMEMBERING RUDOLF E. KALMAN
Throughout his career, Kalman led and taught by example.
He was a purist in pursuing ideas to completion no matter
how long or what effort that necessitated. His publications
were gems, with no exception, in both elegance and scientific
depth.
Kalman published over fifty technical articles, and delivered
numerous lectures. His most cited article, A new approach to
linear filtering and prediction problems, has earned 22500
Rudolf Emil Kalman, 1985. Credit: Kyoto Prize Laureates.
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Toulouse, France, July 9-14, 2017
Google Scholar citations. Up to now, the Kalman filter
related publications exceed 489000.
Rudolf E. Kalman is survived
by his wife, Constantina née
Stavrou, their two children,
Andrew and Elisabeth, and their
families. His contributions to
engineering remain pivotal, and
he leaves behind a lasting
legacy.
Kalman not only shaped the field of modern control theory,
but he was instrumental in promoting its wide usage. His
superb scholarship, magnetic personality, and his lectures in
universities, conferences, and industry attracted countless
researchers who were greatly influenced by his ideas.
For example, his plenary lecture The evolution of system
theory: My memories and hopes delivered at the 16th IFAC
World Congress in Prague, 2005, attracted the audience of
1800 delegates from 60 countries as everyone was eager to
see and hear the living legend of systems and control theory.
Credit: Georgiou, T.T., A tribute
to Rudolf E. Kalman. Proc.
22nd Int. Symposium MTNS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2016.
REFERENCES
Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, available online
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_E._K%C3%A1lm%C3%A1n
Engineering and Technology History Wiki, available online
ethw.org/Rudolf_E._Kalman
MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, available online
www-history.mcs.st- and.ac.uk/Biographies/Kalman.html
Remembering Rudolf E. Kalman. Herbert Wertheim College
of Engineering, University of Florida, available online
www.eng.ufl.edu/news/remembering-rudolf-e-kalman-19302016/
Renowned Hungarian scientist, inventor of the Kálmán Filter,
Rudolf Kálmán dies aged 86, Hungary today, available online
hungarytoday.hu/news/renowned-hungarian-scientis-rudolfkalman-dies-aged-86-46732
Kalman delivering his plenary lecture at the 16th IFAC
World Congress in Prague, 2005. Credit: Michael Šebek.
Vámos, T., Obituary: Rudolf Kalman. IFAC Newsletter, 4,
April 2016, www.ifac-control.org/news/ifac-newsletter
Sontag, E. D., Rudolf E. Kalman and his students. IEEE
Control Systems Magazine, 87, 2010, available online
www.mit.edu/~esontag/FTP_DIR/kalman_students_article_2
010.pdf
Ruegg, P., Rudolf Kalman recognized for filter. ETH News,
published 03.01.2008, available online
www.ethlife.ethz.ch/archive_articles/080103draperprize/index_EN
Kyoto Prize Laureates, Rudolf Emil Kalman, available online
http://www.kyotoprize.org/en/laureates/rudolf_emil_kalman/
Yamamoto, Y., Rudolf Kalman – Founder of the field. Proc.
22nd International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of
Networks and Systems, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2016,
available online hdl.handle.net/11299/181518
Rudolf E. Kalman, former professor in mathematics at ETH
Zurich. Credit: Rueegg, P., Rudolf Kalman recognized for
filter. ETH News, published 03.01.2008.
Georgiou, T. T., A tribute to Rudolf E. Kalman. Proc. 22nd
International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of
Networks and Systems, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2016,
available online hdl.handle.net/11299/181518
Kalman was the creator of the modern theory of systems and
control, and a towering figure in the related fields of Control,
Signal Processing, Information, and Mathematical Sciences.
He was a genuine intellectual, spoke fluently several
languages, and had an amazing knowledge and interest in
music. A side of Kalman which few people may have known
was his attraction to sound systems and exotic sports cars.
Prof. Dr. Rudolf Kalman, Obituaries, ETH Zurich, available
online
www.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/main/ethzurich/ArbeitenLehrenundForschen/professuren/nachrufe/201
6/Nachruf_Kalman.pdf
Kahne, Stephen J. Private communication.
The URLs last accessed on 2 March 2017.
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