Ad ap tive Contro l provid es tec hniques for aut omatic adjustment in
real t ime of cont roller parameter s in order to achieve or to maintain
a desired level for the performance of cont rol systems when the dyn
amic param et ers of t he process are unknown and/or var y in time.
These techniques have as a main feature t he abilit y to ext ract
significant information from real dat a in ord er to tune the cont
roller and they feature a me chanism for adjust ing parameter s (of a
plant model or of a cont roller). While the history of Adaptive Control
is lon g, significant progr ess in under - standing and applying
Adaptive Con trol began in the early sevent ies. The growing
availability of digital com puters have also contributed to the devel-
opment of the field . The earlier applicat ions in the sevent ies and
beginning of the eight ies, provided important feedback for the
development of the field . Theoretical developments allowed a number of
basic problems to be solved . The aim of this book is to provide a
coherent and comprehensive treatment of the field . The presentation
takes the read er from the basic problem formu- lation to the analytical
solutions who se prac tical significance is illustrated by applications.