Design of a multiple-model adaptive controller for a fexible transmission system

The control of a flexible transmission system under various conditions with various loads is an important challenge. This paper proposes a multiple-model adaptive control algorithm as a solution for the flexible transmission benchmark problem. Switching strategies and controller design methods are described in detail by means of the results of a stability analysis of the controller. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, a flexible transmission experimental platform was employed to carry out comparison experiments using a robust controller, an adaptive controller, and the proposed controller. The experimental results showed that the proposed algorithm performed much better than the other controllers because in actual experiments, the other controllers failed under many conditions. The experimental parameter analysis of the proposed algorithm shows that the influence of parameters in the case of the proposed system is not significant when there is a sufficient number of models and reasonable dwell time. This means that the proposed algorithm can always guarantee stability control for flexible industrial transmission systems, and can quickly and stably track and adjust the target.