| Abstract: | The adaptive control literature contains numerous theories for deriving adaptive controllers. However, practising engineers who are not specialists in adaptive theory often have difficulty selecting which approach to use in a given application. The papers in this special issue address this situation by defining a set of standard problems which are then solved by several distinct adaptive control approaches. This introductory paper provides the motivation for the issue (why it is important, who is the target audience, what is the goal of the process), defines the standard problems to be considered and explains the rationale for their formulation, and describes the guidelines which were established for the participants. In addition, this paper defines the ‘ideal’ closed-loop responses for each standard problem, from which the results of the subsequent papers can be judged. |
