Transients in output feedback adaptive systems with observer‐like reference models

This note presents analysis and quantification of transient dynamics in Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC) with output feedback and observer‐like reference models. A practical design methodology for this class of systems was first introduced in 1 , 2 , where an output error feedback was added to the reference model dynamics. Here, this design is complemented with an analysis of the corresponding transients. Specifically, it is shown that employing observer‐like reference models in MRAC leads to a trade‐off between achieving fast transient dynamics and using large error feedback gains in the modified reference model. For clarity sake, only systems with matched uncertainties are analyzed, yet the reported results can be extended to a broader class of uncertainties by utilizing MRAC modifications for robustness 3 , 4 . The note ends with a summary of the derived results and a discussion on practical design guidelines for adaptive output feedback controllers with observer‐like reference models. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.