Preview control is an extended feed-forward control, which works by fully utilising known future knowledge of references or disturbances. An advantage of this is that users can greatly enhance the tracking performance of closed-loop systems by using the future values of the previewed signals. In addition, preview feed-forward compensation can be easily added to existing feedback control systems.

For more than five decades, preview control problems have been studied extensively in many fields, such as discrete-time systems, singular systems, time-delay systems, stochastic systems, and multi-agent systems, especially with respect to linear quadratic optimal control problems with preview compensation. Meanwhile, the application of preview control theory has also made great progress. In addition, preview control design has witnessed the incorporation of other control theories, for instance, multiple model adaptive control has been combined with preview control, sliding control and fuzzy logic concepts were added to preview control problems, and frequency domains have been investigated for the design of preview controllers. Note that in the preview control method, the most important thing is that the known future demand output or disturbance signal affects the operation of the control system. As a typical method, the augmented error system plays a vital role in the design of the controller in discrete-time systems. Since the relationship between the system and the future signal was established by the difference operator, discrete-time systems have become very popular in many research fields. However, in continuous-time systems, a differential operation is used instead of difference operation. Therefore, it is difficult to construct augmented error systems. Up to now, there is a lack of research concerning preview control for continuous-time systems, however, with advances in analysis and synthesis, more effective design methods for preview control are expected to emerge.

The aim of this Special Issue is to solicit original research articles investigating more effective and innovative analysis methods and easy-to-use tools for preview control systems. Submissions focussing on the potential and current applications of preview control in science and engineering are particularly encouraged. Review articles discussing the state of the art are also welcome.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Stability and qualitative analysis of preview control systems
• Strategies and algorithms in preview control systems
• Modelling, analysis, simulation, and design of preview control systems
• Combination of preview control and other advanced control methods
• Preview control applications in science and engineering