Adaptive control for time optimal tracking systems

To relieve the difficulty and inconvenience of selecting the switching point in time optimal control, an adaptive model following control (AMFC) is developed. The AMFC can make the controlled plant follow as closely as possible a desired reference model whose switching point can be calculated easily and accurately, ensuring that the error between the reference model and the real system approaches zero. The AMFC is applied to the tracking actuator of a magneto-optical disk drive to improve its slow tracking performance. From the simulation and experimental results, an average accessing time as small as 20 ms is obtained.