Example applications of the linear adaptive design technique

Adaptive controllers can be designed by a variety of different methodologies that have been developed over the past 35 years. However, all these methodologies have one thing in common; they lead to adaptive controllers that are intriniscatly non-linear in structure. Recently a new, unorthodox approach to the adaptive control problem has been developed. This new methodology leads to a new class of adaptive controllers that, in many cases, are entirely linear and have all-constant parameters (constant gains). In the present paper this new approach to adaptive control is used to design‘linear adaptive controllers’for two example applications, and the closed-loop adaptive performance obtained in each case is illustrated by digital simulation tests. These results demonstrate that the new linear adaptive controllers are able to produce a surprisingly high-degree of adaptation over significant ranges of plant parameter variations and disturbances.