Experimental validation of a novel adaptive controller for piecewise affine systems

This paper presents the first digital implementation of a novel model reference adaptive scheme for the control of piecewise affine circuits and systems. The control law is implemented by using a low-cost commercial microcontroller. The aim is to control a piecewise-linear electrical circuit. The experimental validation process is made challenging by the presence of measure uncertainties, noise, quantization errors, unmodelled nonlinear dynamics, computational delays. Moreover, a digital microcontroller is used to implement an analogue continuous-time control law. Nevertheless, experiments confirm the effectiveness of the controller to cope with switching in the circuit dynamics, establishing the strategy as a viable control tool.