A SYNTHESIS METHOD FOR ADAPTIVE CONTROL OF NONLINEAR SYSTEMS WITH APPLICATION TO A ONE DEGREE-OF-FREEDOM MOTION SIMULATOR

Scope of Method of Study. The purpose of the study was to develop a technique for the synthesis of an on-line control algorithm for a class of highly nonlinear continuous systems with time-varying signal inputs, parameters and mode of operation. Major attention was given to development of an adaptive control law for the electro-hydraulic servo-system of a one degree-of-freedom aircraft motion simulator where full state measurements are available. The system was modelled in state-space form. Optimization procedures were utilized for defining the control law. A model was evaluated off-line to determine suitability for the intended class of applications.;Findings and Conclusions. An on-line adaptive control scheme which accounts for actuator dynamics was shown to provide improved performance over conventional analog or digital control schemes. The adaptive control law also has the capability to switch between modes of operation and to generate an input signal as a function of the states' measurements.