Spring 2020
Prof. Arnab Maity
Author: Anay Panshikar
Pre-requisite courses: AE308
Course Content:
- Mathematical preliminaries
- Introduction to adaptive control theory
- Study of direct and indirect model reference adaptive control (MRAC)
- Study of robustness modifications in MRAC
- Introduction to concurrent learning adaptive control
- L1 adaptive control
Motivation to take up the course: This is probably the only course in the institute regarding helicopters and drones. I really wanted to know these stuff. I heard before that Helicopters are really hard to fly compared to planes and I wanted to figure why is that. Course really answered my questions.
Course evaluation structure: Assignments (2) - 15% Midsem - 15% Endsem - 20% Project phase 1 - 20% (submission just after midsems) Project phase 2 - 30% (submission just after endsems)
Information about Projects/Assignments: Assignments - Based on tutorials and lecture notes. Project - Take the system model and its dynamics from some research paper and apply an adaptive control technique/modification taught in the class which is different from the one discussed in the paper.
Quizzes/Midsem/Endsem papers Difficulty: 4/5
Overall Course Difficulty: Moderate
Average Time Commitment: 2-3 hrs per week
Attendance Policy: Optional
Motivation behind taking up the course: I am interested in the domain of control theory, specifically related to its application for flight vehicles. There are numerous uncertainties and unmodeled dynamics present for a flight vehicle. Adaptive control is an important control method for design of a robust controller to tackle these problems in real-time.
General funda: It will be better to attend the lectures regularly. The initial part is easy to grasp but the techniques and methods taught later (post midsem) are a bit involved.
Professor’s Teaching Style: Prof taught some part or a concept (eg 7-8 slides) and then we had discussions. There were examples included in the slides as well based on flight vehicles. The prof also cleared the doubts during the lectures.
Who can do this course?: Btech (3rd yr+), Mtech