UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL AND MECHATRONICS ENGINEERING

ME 780A Special Topics in Mechatronics: System Identification & Adaptive Control

Course Outline Fall 2016

Instructor/Contacts
Baris Fidan
E-mail: fidan@uwaterloo.ca
Phone: Ext. 38023
Office: Engineering 3x - 4119

Course Web Page: UW-LEARN

Overview
This course is on the fundamentals of system identification and (parameter identification
based) adaptive control of dynamic systems whose parameters are not well known or
changing with time in an unknown manner. Focus will be on continuous-time dynamic
engineering systems throughout the course, which will cover design, (basic) analysis,
simulations, and applications of fundamental identification and adaptive control systems.
The design and analysis techniques to be covered in this course are useful for control
applications in various branches of engineering including mechatronic, aerospace,
transportation, traffic, chemical process, and communication applications. System
identification schemes are used to estimate system parameters and/or variables (states),
monitor changes in parameters and characteristics of the system and for diagnostic purposes
related to a variety of areas of technology. Some of these schemes can be used to tune or
update the design parameters of parametric decision makers such as neural networks and
fuzzy logic systems. Combination of these schemes with certain feedback controllers form
adaptive controllers that can control systems with large or changing parametric uncertainties.
Both the design and the analysis of such parameter identification schemes and adaptive
controllers are important and require care in order to have them work in all possible situations
with a desired performance level.

Course Objective
The main purpose of the course is to let the participants learn how to design, simulate and
implement system identifiers, parameter estimators and adaptive control schemes without
having to fully understand the analytical and technical proofs, although fundamental steps of
the mathematical analysis behind these techniques will be provided through simple examples
and references for the more complex general proofs will be given for the curious attendees.

Required Background
Participants are required to have a sound background in basic linear algebra, basic linear
systems, and basic feedback control (please contact the instructor if any doubts). The
course extensively involves simulation studies using MATLAB and Simulink, and especially
the Adaptive Control Toolbox for MATLAB. Hence it is also required that participants are
familiar with MATLAB and Simulink.

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ME 780 Course Outline Last Update: 27 September 2016
Course Material
Lecture Notes/Slides: To be posted on the course web page in parallel with the lectures.

Main Textbook:
Adaptive Control Tutorial by Petros A. Ioannou and Baris Fidan, SIAM Society
for Industrial & Applied Mathematics, TJ217.I628, 2006.
Reference Books:
System Identification by Lennart Ljung, Prentice-Hall, 1999.
Adaptive Filtering, Prediction and Control by Graham C. Goodwin and Kwai Sang
Sin, Prentice Hall, 1984 (reprinted by Dover in 2009).

Lecture Times and Place:

Wednesday 1 10:30 am 1:20 pm at E5 4106 / PAS 2085
Office Hours:
By appointment at E3-4119, or after class at E5 4106 / PAS 2085.

Tentative Schedule:
Week Topic
1 Introduction and Logistics, System Parameterization and Parametric
Sep 13,14 Models.

2, 3, 4 Parameter Identification: Simple Examples, Gradient Algorithms,

Sep 20,21,28 Persistence of Excitation, Least-Squares Algorithms, Parameter
Oct 5 Projection, Robust Parameter Identification.
5, 6 State Estimation, Observer Design, Adaptive Observers, Adaptive
Oct 14,19 Estimators, Kalman Filtering

7, 8 Introduction to Adaptive Control, Pole Placement Control (PPC) ,

Oct 26 Adaptive Pole Placement Control (APPC), Adaptive Linear
Nov 2 Quadratic Control.
9, 10 Model Reference Control (MRC), Model Reference Adaptive
Nov 9,16 Control (MRAC).

11 Advanced Topics: Robust Control Designs, Nonlinear Systems.

Nov 23
12 Written Exam
Nov 30
13, 14 Adaptive Control Applications-Projects (Student Presentations)
Time & Place TBA

Assessment:
Assignments (3 x 5%) 15%
Project (Milestone Assignments + Report + Presentation 50%
Written Exam (Part A: In class, the textbook + 4 pages handwritten formula sheet 35%
allowed. Part B: Simulation based take home.)
Total 100%

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For the Fall Break Week, Oct 12 lecture is moved to Oct 14 Fri, same time at E5 4106.
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ME 780 Course Outline Last Update: 27 September 2016
Project Rules and Guideline:
1. Groups of 2: Either (i) a single project to be done with teamwork; or (ii) a pair of closely
relevant projects, each to be performed by an individual. Case (i) is the ideal and the
suggested one based on experience. In Case (ii), team members are expected to help each
other via continuous discussions and feedback.
2. Project areas are to be selected by Sep 21. Detailed topics to be fixed by Oct 5. These
topics can be modified later with mutual understanding of the team members and
acknowledgement of the instructor, provided that the deviation from the original topic is
not huge.
3. Some original contribution (at least conference paper level) is expected. Regenerating the
results of papers in the literature is not sufficient. This contribution is usually in the form
of devising a new algorithm/scheme, enhancing an already existing algorithm, applying a
certain identification (ID) or adaptive control tool to a new application, comparison of
various tools for a particular problem and providing guideline for which one to use for
which cases. Please contact the instructor for further explanation for your doubts about
this point.
4. Each project is required to have all of the following three components: (a) Parametric
system modeling, (b) parameter and/or state ID, (c) control. At least one of the
components (b) and (c) needs to be studied in detail and contain some novel design; the
other can be at justified discussion level only.

5. The assessment will be done based on four deliverables:

a. Three specific project assignments (12/50 of project grade):
These assignments are mainly for aligning the projects with the lectures and managing
progress.

b. Report due Week 14 (together with 5.c, 28/50 of project grade):

Double column, 10-12 pt size, Times New Roman (like)
IEEE or ASME conference style
5-6 pages for single project groups; 4-6 pages each for project pair groups.
Format:
ABSTRACT: Summarize key points and key contributions.
SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION: Background, verbal definition of the problem of
interest, explanation of why people care about this problem, what is already done in the
literature, a brief intro of what you will present in this report, organisation of the report.
SECTION 2 FORMAL PROBLEM DEFINITION: Detailed mathematical definition
of the problem of interest: Mathematical description of the system to be identified and
controlled, system equations, derivation of a parametric model from these eqs, formal
definition of the system ID and (adaptive) control problem.
SECTION 3 DESIGN: Systematic derivation and description of the parameter/state
estimator and controller design.
SECTION 4 SIMULATIONS/EXPERIMENTS: Details, diagrams, design
parameters, result plots, quantitative comparisons.
SECTION 5 CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSIONS: Summary of what you did,
qualitative comparisons, deduced results, suggestion for further improvement, etc.
To be submitted both in printed form and pdf soft copy.

c. Simulation/Implementation Codes due Week 14 (see 5.b for grading):

To be emailed to the instructor.

d. Presentation to be scheduled in Weeks 13 and 14 (10/50 of project grade):

20 min for each project (that means 2x20 min for project pair groups)
A pdf or ppt copy of the presentation to be emailed to the instructor together with the
pdf copy of the report and the codes.
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ME 780 Course Outline Last Update: 27 September 2016
Academic Integrity Rules and Your Rights

Policy on Cheating: Engineering, medicine and law are professions. The word profession
means that the members serve the public and must practice with the highest standard of
honesty and ethics. Without these standards, buildings, hospitals and courts would be unsafe
for the general public. A profession policies itself: that is, disciplinary action is taken against
its own members for violations even if the instance is not illegal. (Legal action may also be
taken if laws have been broken.) Plagiarism, or stealing of intellectual property, is a violation
of ethics and arguably the law. At the University of Waterloo Policy 71 governs plagiarism.
Please read
http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~ugoffice/html/course_responsibilities.html regarding your
responsibilities and rights.
Academic Integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the
University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect
and responsibility. [Check www.uwaterloo.ca/academicintegrity/ for more information.]
Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university
life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy
70, Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4,
www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy70.htm . When in doubt please be certain to
contact the departments administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.
Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity [check
www.uwaterloo.ca/academicintegrity/] to avoid committing an academic offence, and to take
responsibility for his/her actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an
offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or
about rules for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course instructor,
academic advisor, or the undergraduate Associate Dean. For information on categories of
offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71, Student Discipline,
www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy71.htm. For typical penalties check Guidelines
for the Assessment of Penalties,
www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/guidelines/penaltyguidelines.htm .
Appeals: A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70 (Student Petitions and
Grievances) (other than a petition) or Policy 71 (Student Discipline) may be appealed if there
is a ground. A student who believes he/she has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy
72 (Student Appeals) www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy72.htm .

AccessAbility Services: The AccessAbility Services Office, located in Needles Hall, Room
1132, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for
students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If
you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register
with the AccessAbility Services at the beginning of each academic term.

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ME 780 Course Outline Last Update: 27 September 2016