Direct Multi‐Thread Adaptive Control With Attracting Manifold Design

ABSTRACT This article presents a novel multi‐thread attracting manifold (MTAM) adaptive control scheme. The novel contribution of this new controller lies in how the attracting manifold design method is spread across multiple estimates of the truth while simultaneously weighting between said individual estimates to arrive at an adaptive composite estimate which outperforms single thread adaptive controllers. A notable benefit of this new formulation is that it allows for both the weighting of multiple threads and monotonic decrease of parameter error to aid the performance of transient error dynamics, without arbitrarily increasing adaptation gains. The benefits of the proposed controller over existing adaptive control schemes are analyzed through two aerospace flight control applications from the literature.