Transient performance improvement in indirect model reference adaptive control using perturbation‐based extremum seeking identifier

One of the main drawbacks of model reference adaptive control (MRAC) is the weakness of its transient performance. The key reason of this imperfection is parameter's estimation error convergence. For many cases in the closed‐loop control, the plant input signal cannot satisfy the persistence of excitation (PE) condition which yields poor parameters estimation error convergence. In this paper, we use a fast perturbation‐based extremum seeking (PES) scheme without steady‐state oscillation as the parameter identifier in indirect MRAC. The estimated parameters through the PES identifier contain the additive sinusoidal signals with distinct frequencies in the transient, which satisfy the PE condition of the plant input. Therefore, convergence of the parameters estimation error to zero will be guaranteed that results in improvement of transient performance for indirect MRAC. Also, the contrary effects on the steady‐state behaviour is eliminated since the sinusoidal excitation signals amplitude exponentially converge to zero and reinitiate with every change in the unknown parameters. Simulation results for a second order example have been presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.