Adaptive control system having hedge unit and related apparatus and methods

An adaptive control system coupled to receive a command state signal indicative of a target state of a plant controlled by the adaptive control system, the adaptive control system comprising:

• a controller coupled to receive the commanded state signal, a plant state signal, and an adaptive control signal, the controller generating an input command signal based on the commanded state signal, the plant state signal, the adaptive control signal, and a control model, and the controller generating a command control signal based on the commanded state signal, the plant state signal, the adaptive control signal, the control model, control allocation of the controller, and at least one control characteristic of the controller, the controller coupled to supply the command control signal to the plant to control the plant's state;
• an actuator coupled to receive the command control signal, and affecting physical control of the plant's state based on the command control signal;
• a sensor coupled to sense the plant state, and generating a plant state signal based on the sensed plant state;
• a hedge unit coupled to receive the input control signal, the command control signal, and the plant state signal, and generating a hedge signal to modify the command state signal based on the input control signal, the command control signal, the plant state signal, and a hedge model indicative of a characteristic of at least one of the plant and the adaptive control system, to remove the effect of the characteristic on a tracking error signal;
• a reference model unit coupled to receive the command state signal and the hedge signal, the reference model unit generating a reference model state signal based on the commanded state signal and a hedge signal;
• a comparator unit coupled to receive the reference model state signal and the plant state signal, and generating a tracking error signal based on a difference between the plant state signal and the reference model state signal;
• and
• an adaptation law unit coupled to receive the tracking error signal, and generating the adaptive control signal based on the tracking error signal, the adaptation law unit coupled to supply the adaptive control signal to the controller.