A wide experimental investigation of a novel Model Reference Adaptive Conrol (MRAC) designed for highly nonlinear automotive components

In this report we present the results of an in-depth experimental validation of a Novel Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC) based on the minimal control synthesis algorithm (MCS) on an Electronic Throttle Body (ETB) to be used for drive-by-wire applications on car engines. Mainly this control strategy is obtained adding to the classical MCS algorithm an explicit integral term, that it is based on the differences between the reference plate position and the actual position of the throttle (MCSI), and a robust adaptive term (NEMCS), that is based on the sign of the tracking error. The aim of this report is to show experimentally the excellent tracking performances in closed loop despite of unmodel dynamics, and uncertain plant parameters. Hence, the adaptive mechanism, embedded into the novel control law, is suitable to impose a preassigned behavior to the uncertain plants where classical control strategy fails.