Adaptive Control

In everyday language, “to adapt” means

to change a behavior to conform to new
circumstances. Intuitively, an adaptive
controller is thus a controller that can
modify its behavior in response to
changes in the dynamics of the process
and the character of the disturbances.
 Adaptive Controller
• An adaptive controller is a controller with adjustable
parameters and a mechanism for adjusting the parameters.

• The controller becomes nonlinear because of the parameter

adjustment mechanism.

• An adaptive control system can be thought of as having two

loops. One loop is a normal feedback with the process and
the controller. The other loop is the parameter adjustment
loop.
Block diagram
Types of Adaptive Schemes
• Gain Scheduling

• Model reference adaptive control

• Self tuning regulator

Gain Scheduling
A measurable variables that correlate well with changes
in process dynamics.

These variables can then be used to change the controller

parameters.

This approach is called gain scheduling because the

scheme was originally used to measure the gain and then
change, that is, schedule, the controller to compensate
for changes in the process gain.
 Model reference adaptive
system
The performance specifications are given in terms of a
reference model.

This model tells how the process output ideally should

respond to the command signal.

The key problem with MRAS is to determine the adjustment

mechanism so that a stable system, which brings the error to
zero, is obtained. This problem is nontrivial.
The outer loop adjusts the controller parameters in such a
way that the error, which is the difference between process
output y and model output y , is small.
m
• Parameter adjustment mechanism - MIT Rule

error

controller parameter.

the sensitivity derivative of the error with respect to parameter

The MIT rule can be regarded as a gradient scheme to minimize

the squared error e2.
 Self Tuning Regulators

STR updates the estimates of the process parameters and the

controller parameters are obtained from the solution of a
design problem using the estimated parameters.

Indirect method —> The controller parameters are updated

indirectly via the design calculations
The inner loop consists of the process and an ordinary feedback controller.
The parameters of the controller are adjusted by the outer loop, which is
composed of a recursive parameter estimator and a design calculation. It is
sometimes not possible to estimate the process parameters without
introducing probing control signals or perturbations.
Certainty equivalence principle
In the STR the controller parameters or the process parameters
are estimated in real time. The estimates are then used as if they
are equal to the true parameters (i.e., the uncertainties of the
estimates are not considered).

In many estimation schemes it is also possible to get a measure of

the quality of the estimates. This uncertainty may then be used in
the design of the controller.
 Control Structure
The process is controlled by a controller that has adjustable
parameters.

Underlying design problem —> It is assumed that there exists

some kind of design procedure that makes it possible to
determine a controller that satisfies some design criteria if the
process and its environment are known.

The adaptive control problem is then to find a method of

adjusting the controller when the characteristics of the process
and its environment are unknown or changing.
Direct adaptive control —> the controller parameters are
changed directly without the characteristics of the process
and its disturbances first being determined.

Indirect adaptive control —> the process model and

possibly the disturbance characteristics are first
determined. The controller parameters are designed on the
basis of this information.
Construction of adaptive
controller
• Characterize the desired behavior of the
closed-loop system.
• Determine a suitable control law with
adjustable parameters.
• Find a mechanism for adjusting the
parameters.
• Implement the control law.
 Real time parameter
estimation

• The Least Square method (LSQM)

• Recursive LSQM

• Recursive LSQM with Exponential Forgetting

Model Reference Adaptive
System - MRAS
In the MRAS the desired behavior of the system is specified
by a model, and the parameters of the controller are adjusted
based on the error, which is the difference between the
outputs of the closed-loop system and the model.
 MIT Rule
Let e be the error between the output y of the closed-loop
system and the output ym of the model. One possibility is to
adjust parameters in such a way that the loss function

is minimized.
To make J small, it is reasonable to change the parameters in
the direction of the negative gradient of J, that is,

Sensitivity derivative
Alternative loss functions

sign-sign algorithm

Adjusting many parameters

 Problem - 1
Consider a linear process with the transfer function kG(s),
where G(s) is known and k is an unknown parameter. Design
an adjustable/adaptive (MRAS) feedforward controller that
gives a system with the transfer function Gm(s) = k0G(s),
where k0 is a given constant.
 Problem - 2
Consider a system described by the relation
The desired response is . Find the
conditions for complete model following. Also design an
adjustable (MRAS) controller that adapts with the desired
response.
DETERMINATION OF THE ADAPTATION GAIN

paremeter equation

A linear time-varying
ordinary differential equation.

in steady state