Applications of adaptive control to a robotic welder

Research on the adaptive control of a nonminimum-phase linear system is described. A class of adaptive control laws which do not require projection of the parameter estimates is proposed. These control laws are based upon the creation of an auxiliary model. By designing a control law for the auxiliary model, a generalization of model reference adaptive control for the original system is obtained. A robotic welder is currently being used as a testbed for these theoretical results. Previous observations are described and future work is discussed