Intelligent Control Using Neural Networks

The paper deals with the control of nonlinear dynamical plants in the presence of structural failures as examples of intelligent control. At any time, the system is assumed to be in one of a finite number of configurations. Corresponding to each configuration of the plant, a controller is assumed to exist such that the plant in that configuration together with the controller has a desired response. The objective of the paper is to propose a two-level controller structure where the higher level detects the configuration of the plant at any instant based on the response of the overall system and activates the corresponding controller at the lower level. Multilyer neural networks are used for the identification and control of the plant at the lower level and as pattern recognizers at the higher level. Simulation results are presented to complement the theoretical discussions.