Robust and Adaptive Control

Book excerpt: Robust and Adaptive Control (second edition) shows readers how to produce consistent and accurate controllers that operate in the presence of uncertainties and unforeseen events. Driven by aerospace applications, the focus of the book is primarily on continuous-time dynamical systems. The two-part text begins with robust and optimal linear control methods and moves on to a self-contained presentation of the design and analysis of model reference adaptive control for nonlinear uncertain dynamical systems. Features of the second edition include: sufficient conditions for closed-loop stability under output feedback observer-based loop-transfer recovery (OBLTR) with adaptive augmentation; OBLTR applications to aerospace systems; case studies that demonstrate the benefits of robust and adaptive control for piloted, autonomous and experimental aerial platforms; realistic examples and simulation data illustrating key features of the methods described; and problem solutions for instructors and MATLAB® code provided electronically. The theory and practical applications address real-life aerospace problems, being based on numerous transitions of control-theoretic results into operational systems and airborne vehicles drawn from the authors’ extensive professional experience with The Boeing Company. The systems covered are challenging—often open-loop unstable with uncertainties in their dynamics—and thus require both persistently reliable control and the ability to track commands either from a pilot or a guidance computer. Readers should have a basic understanding of root locus, Bode diagrams, and Nyquist plots, as well as linear algebra, ordinary differential equations, and the use of state-space methods in analysis and modeling of dynamical systems. The second edition contains a background summary of linear systems and control systems and an introduction to state observers and output feedback control, helping to make it self-contained. Robust and Adaptive Control teaches senior undergraduate and graduate students how to construct stable and predictable control algorithms for realistic industrial applications. Practicing engineers and academic researchers will also find the book of great instructional value.