Designed for advanced learners and researchers, the book delivers a rigorous exploration of continuous‑time formulations that underpin next‑generation optimization‑based control strategies. It emphasizes core topics such as gradient flows, Lyapunov stability, finite‑ and fixed‑time convergence, predefined‑time stability, and feedback optimization—precisely the themes central to contemporary research in dynamical optimization. The book blends theoretical development with practical insight, supported by worked examples, end‑of‑chapter references, and rich visualizations through 80 high‑quality colour figures. Readers gain a deep understanding of how continuous‑time models can be leveraged to design robust controllers with guaranteed convergence properties—even in constrained or time‑varying environments.

Shyam Kamal received his Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidyalaya Haridwar, Uttrakhand, India in 2009, and Ph.D. in Systems and Control Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India in 2014. From 2015 to 2016, he was with the Department of Systems Design and Informatics, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan as a Project Assistant Professor. Currently, he is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering., Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi, India. He has published one monograph, two book chapters and 105 journal articles and conference papers. His research interests include the areas of nonlinear control and its applications. Particularly he is working on fractional-order systems, contraction analysis, discrete and continuous higher-order sliding mode control and multi-agent systems. He has received excellence awards in Ph.D. thesis from IIT Bombay in 2015 for his thesis “Sliding Mode Control of Fractional-order Systems” and INAE Young Engineer Award in 2019 for his research work. He is now an INAE Young Associate. He has also received honorary appointment as a Visiting professor from RMIT Melbourne Australia in July 2017 and in the duration of November and December 2019 and Visiting Professor from Harbin Institute on Technology China in August 2019.

Sunidhi Pandey received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, India, in 2025. She obtained her M.Tech. degree in Power Systems from Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT), Prayagraj, India, and her B.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from Kamla Nehru Institute of Technology (KNIT), Sultanpur, India. Her research interests include nonlinear control, optimization and learning-based control, passivity and dissipativity theory, negative imaginary systems, model predictive control, sliding mode control, multi-agent systems, and autonomous robotic systems. Her recent work focuses on continuous-time optimization, accelerated optimization dynamics, feedback optimization, and the integration of control-theoretic principles with learning-enabled autonomous systems.