Toolboxes and programs for fractional-order system identification, modeling, simulation, and control

Fractional-order calculus, that is the theory of differentiation and integration of arbitrary real (integer and non-integer) order, is one of the rapidly developing areas on natural science and engineering. This work is devoted to discussing the software toolboxes and program suites that are currently available for solving problems of fractional-order system identification, modeling, simulation, and control, including the presentation of toolboxes for Matlab created and maintained by the authors, and along with the related documentation available for download at the Matlab Central File Exchange.

I. Introduction

With rapidly growing number of researchers in various fields of science and engineering applying fractional-order modeling for solving problems in their particular fields, they all need a convenient set of tools that could be used without spending unnecessarily much time of studying the theory and creating their own tools. The popularity and wide availability of MATLAB at universities and other research institutions in the world together with its user-extensibility and relative ease of use makes it a very suitable platform for developing functions and toolboxes for fractional-order modeling, simulation, control, and applications.