Adaptive Control

Adaptive control is the attempt to " redesign " the controller while online, by looking at its performance and changing its dynamic in an automatic way. Adaptive control is that feedback law that looks at the process and the performance of the controller and reshapes the controller closed loop behavior autonomously. Plant Adaptation Procedure Controller u(t) y(t) y(t) u(t) Figure 1. Adaptive Control as Feedback Law Adaptive Control is made by combining 1. online parameter estimator based on current measurements and control actions 2. control law, that recalculates the controller based on those parameters There are two main modalities of adaptive control. We discussed them below. In this case, the estimated parameters refer to the plant, and the controller is designed based on those parameters. For example, an energy consumption coefficient is estimated; a linearized version of the plant is produced, which is then used in a pole placement method to calculate the gains of the final controller. The main problem is to make sure that the controller behaves well in cases when the estimation of the plant is not good, like for example, during transients. In principle, the indirect method is applicable to all types of plants.