Revisiting the MIT rule for adaptive control

I. M. Y. Mareels, Brian Anderson, Robert R Bitmead, Marc Bodson, Shankar Sastry

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

The MIT rule is a scalar parameter adjustment law which was proposed in 1961 for the model reference adaptive control of linear systems
modeled as the cascade of a known stable plant and a single unknown gain. This adjustment law was derived by approximating a gradient descent
prOCedUPe for an integral error squared performance criterion. For the early part of the 1960s this rule was the basis of many adaptive control schemes
and a considerable wealth of practical experience and engineering folklore was amassed. The MIT rule is in general not globally convergent nor stable but has a performance determined by several factors such as algorithm
gain, reference input magnitude and frequency, and the particular transfer function appearing in the cascade. These restrictions on the MIT rule slowly
Came to be discerned through experimentation and Simulation but ffectively were without theoretical support until some novel algorithm 8nodlfications
and stability analysis, so-called Lyapunov redesign, due to Parks. Our aim in this paper is to pursue a theoretical analysis of the original fiIT rule to support the existing simulation evidence and to indicate mechanisms for treating questions of robustness of MIT-rule-based adaptive ~ont~ollers with undermodelling effects. The techniques that we apply to this problem
centre on root locus methods, Nyquist methods and the application of the theory of averaging. Stability and instability results are presented
and, using pertinent theories for different regimes Of the gain-frequency plane, we approximate the expe~imentally derived stability margins, but for a broader Signal class than simply periodio inputs. The mechanisms of instability and stability for these adaptive systems are highlighted and allow us to enunciate guidelines for the MIT rule to work.
It 13 a pleasing by-product of this theoretical analysis that these guidelines coincide to a large degree with those advanced in earlier times on
experimental and heuristio grounds.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings IFAC Workshop on Adaptive Systems in Control and Signal Processing
PublisherPergamon Press
Pages1-7
Publication statusPublished - 1986

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