Composite Adaptation for Neural Network-Based Controllers

With the motivation of using more information to update the parameter estimates to achieve improved tracking performance, composite adaptation that uses both the system tracking errors and a prediction error containing parametric information to drive the update laws, has become widespread in adaptive control literature. However, despite its obvious benefits, composite adaptation has not been widely implemented in neural network-based control, primarily due to the neural network (NN) reconstruction error that destroys a typical prediction error formulation required for the composite adaptation. This technical note presents a novel approach to design a composite adaptation law for NNs by devising an innovative swapping procedure that uses the recently developed robust integral of the sign of the error (RISE) feedback method. Semi-global asymptotic tracking is proven for a Euler-Lagrange system. Experimental results are provided to illustrate the concept.