Comparison of adaptive controllers

The paper investigates adaptive control of discrete-time processes satisfying first-order linear difference equations with random coefficients which may be constant or time-varying. Structural relationships between sub-optimal adaptive control laws are discussed and results of systematic Monte-Carlo simulations are reported. These lead to a comparison of two sub-optimal adaptive controls ($\text{‘}\text{optimal}\text{-k-}\text{step-ahead}$’ and ‘self-tuning’) and to conclusions about the need for and effectiveness of adaptive control of the systems simulated. It is conjectured that the results and the classification scheme they suggest might have more general validity.