Choice of utility functions for adaptive critic designs

This paper first presents a general overview of Adaptive Critic Designs (ACDs) and their existing control applications. It describes the importance of the right choice of utility functions for the development of critic networks and their convergence to the cost-to-go function J. A closer look into the step by step derivation of an utility function for the design of an ACD nonlinear optimal neurocontroller to replace/augment the conventional controllers, the automatic voltage regulator and governor, in a power system consisting of a generator connected to the power grid is described and some results are presented.