Design of restricted complexity adaptive regulators

This paper describes preliminary studies related to the problem of designing adaptive regulators when the structure of the control law is restricted. The design of restricted complexity regulators is of practical importance. For example, if the true system has infinite order then any practical control law will be of restricted complexity. Alternatively if the true system has finite order but the order is imprecisely known or is time varying, then the control law may again be of restricted complexity. Even in situations where the order of the system is known, sensitivity considerations may make the use of a restricted complexity control law desirable. This paper examines several different approaches to the design of restricted complexity adaptive regulators. It is shown that restricted complexity regulators can be readily designed and may offer several advantages over conventional regulators.