An Adaptive Human Pilot Model With Reaction Time Delay for Enhanced Adaptive Control in Piloted Systems

ABSTRACT Adaptive controllers have proven successful in handling uncertain dynamical systems. Yet, their integration into piloted applications remains uncommon owing to their nonlinear characteristics, which give rise to unfavorable interactions between adaptive controllers and human pilots in certain applications. To enable their safe implementation in the loop with human pilots, we introduce an adaptive human pilot model suited for predicting human interactions with adaptive controllers. This model accounts for the time delay in the pilot's response when operating on an adaptive control system, thereby facilitating the evaluation of adaptive controllers in simulation environments and guiding their design to ensure smooth pilot‐controller interactions.