control theory Control theory is a field of control engineering and applied mathematics that deals with the control system, control of dynamical systems in engineered processes and machines. The objective is to develop a model or algorithm governing the applic ...

, gain scheduling is an approach to control of

nonlinear system In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system (or a non-linear system) is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathem ...

s that uses a family of linear controllers, each of which provides satisfactory control for a different

operating point The operating point is a specific point within the operation Receiver operating characteristic, characteristic of a technical device. This point will be engaged because of the properties of the system and the outside influences and parameters. In ...

of the system. One or more

observable In physics, an observable is a physical property or physical quantity that can be measured. In classical mechanics, an observable is a real-valued "function" on the set of all possible system states, e.g., position and momentum. In quantum ...

variables, called the ''scheduling variables'', are used to determine what operating region the system is currently in and to enable the appropriate linear controller. For example, in an aircraft

flight control system A conventional fixed-wing aircraft flight control system (AFCS) consists of flight control surfaces, the respective cockpit controls, connecting linkages, and the necessary operating mechanisms to control an aircraft's direction in flight. ...

, the

altitude Altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum (geodesy), datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context (e.g., aviation, geometr ...

and

Mach number The Mach number (M or Ma), often only Mach, (; ) is a dimensionless quantity in fluid dynamics representing the ratio of flow velocity past a boundary to the local speed of sound. It is named after the Austrian physicist and philosopher Erns ...

might be the scheduling variables, with different linear controller parameters available (and automatically plugged into the controller) for various combinations of these two variables. In brief, gain scheduling is a control design approach that constructs a nonlinear controller for a nonlinear plant by patching together a collection of linear controllers. A relatively large scope state of the art about gain scheduling has been published in (Survey of Gain-Scheduling Analysis & Design, D.J.Leith, WE.Leithead). Recently, new methodologies using Machine learning, such as Adaptive control based on

Artificial Neural Networks In machine learning, a neural network (also artificial neural network or neural net, abbreviated ANN or NN) is a computational model inspired by the structure and functions of biological neural networks. A neural network consists of connected ...

(ANN) and

Reinforcement Learning Reinforcement learning (RL) is an interdisciplinary area of machine learning and optimal control concerned with how an intelligent agent should take actions in a dynamic environment in order to maximize a reward signal. Reinforcement learnin ...

, have been studied.

See also

References

Further reading