The Computer Aided Program for Time-series Analysis and Identification of Noisy systems (CAPTAIN) software development started while I was at Cambridge in the 1970s (see P. C. Young and S. H. Shellswell. CAPTAIN – a computer aided program for time series analysis and the identification of noisy systems, Proc. IEE Conference on Computer Aided Control System Design, London, 1973. IEE.); and later in the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia (see P. Young and A. Jakeman. The development of Captain: A computer aided program for time-series analysis and identification of noisy systems. IFAC Proceedings Volumes, 12(7):391–400, 1979. IFAC Symposium on computer Aided Design of Control Systems, Zurich, Switzerland). But the most extensive form of the CAPTAIN Toolbox was developed in the Environmental Science Department (now part of the Lancaster Environment Centre) at Lancaster starting in the mid 1980’s, when Dr Wlodek Tych introduced us to Matlab and started the ‘CAPTAINization’ of the constituent algorithms into a Matlab form that could be called easily for use in Matlab. These algorithms are multifarious, covering topics in the statistical identification and recursive estimation of discrete and continuous-time transfer function models; associated and other forecasting procedures; and the digital control of dynamic systems using a Non-Minimal State Space (NMSS) formulation. The Toolbox is now available from https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/captaintoolbox/true-digital-control/ and is now managed by Professor James Taylor.
