ESC: an expert switching control system

The paper considers an application of a real-time expert system to controller implementation and offers an alternative to conventional adaptive controllers. The `expert´ is used to switch between different control algorithms so as to achieve high quality control over a range of error signal magnitudes. The aim of the project is to use combinations of simple, well-known controllers with differing response characteristics to achieve better overall control than could be achieved using the control laws separately. The manner and timing of the combination is organised by the `expert´ element. This approach could be regarded as a more sophisticated version of gain scheduling. A further attraction of the approach is that it is well suited to a multiprocessor implementation