Adaptive control with convex saturation constraints

This study applies retrospective cost adaptive control to command following in the presence of multi-variable convex input saturation constraints. To account for the saturation constraint, the authors use convex optimisation to minimise the quadratic retrospective cost function. The use of convex optimisation bounds the magnitude of the retrospectively optimised input and thereby influences the controller update to satisfy the control bounds. This technique is applied to a multi-rotor helicopter with constraints on the total thrust magnitude and inclination of the rotor plane.