- Ogata, Modern Control Engineering. The canonical worldwide textbook. Comprehensive, step-by-step, problem-rich.
- Franklin, Powell, Emami-Naeini, Feedback Control of Dynamic Systems. Modern, well-illustrated. Especially good on practical design.
- Aström and Murray, Feedback Systems: An Introduction for Scientists and Engineers. Free online. Modern, accessible, broad scope.
- Nise, Control Systems Engineering. Friendly explanations, good for intuition.
- Kuo, Automatic Control Systems. Problem-rich classic.
- Skogestad and Postlethwaite, Multivariable Feedback Control. When you want to go deeper into MIMO, robust control, and modern methods.
- Brian Douglas, "Control Systems Lectures" on YouTube. The best free intuition-building video series. Every concept has a 10-minute video that nails the mental picture.
- Steve Brunton, "Control Bootcamp" on YouTube. State-space-flavored, with great connections to data-driven control and machine learning.
- MathWorks documentation for Control System Toolbox. Even if you don't use MATLAB, the docs are excellent reference material with worked examples for every concept.
When you are comfortable with this chapter, you are ready to build any control system from sensor to actuator. The math is the language; the cruise-control intuition is the heart; PID and state-space are the tools. Everything else in modern control is variation on these themes.