Fractional adaptive control for an automatic voltage regulator

This paper presents the application of a direct Fractional Order Model Reference Adaptive Controller (FOMRAC) to an Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR). A direct FOMRAC is a direct Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC), whose controller parameters are adjusted using fractional order differential equations. Four realizations of the FOMRAC were designed in this work, each one considering different orders for the plant model. The design procedure consisted of determining the optimal values of the fractional order and the adaptive gains for each adaptive law, using Genetic algorithm optimization. Comparisons were made among the four FOMRAC designs, a fractional order PID (FOPID), a classical PID, and four Integer Order Model Reference Adaptive Controllers (IOMRAC), showing that the FOMRAC can improve the controlled system behavior and its robustness with respect to model uncertainties. Finally, some performance indices are presented here for the controlled schemes, in order to show the advantages and disadvantages of the FOMRAC. (C) 2013 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.