Abstract
A velocity controller using a modified model reference adaptive controller (M-MRAC) and a projection operator for a fish sorting belt conveyor system with uncertainty parameters, input saturation and bounded disturbances is proposed in this paper. To improve the tracking performance and robustness of the proposed controller in the presence of bounded disturbances, the followings are done. Firstly, the reference model for the conventional model reference adaptive controller (CMRAC) is replaced by a modified reference model for a M-MRAC to reduce unexpected high frequency oscillation in control input signal when the adaptation rate is increased. Secondly, estimated parameters in an adaptive law are varied smoothly under bounded external disturbances and a projection operator is utilized in an adaptive law for the proposed M-MRAC controller to be robust. Thirdly, an auxiliary error vector is introduced for compensating the error dynamics of the system when the saturation input occurs. Finally, the experimental results are shown to verify the better effectiveness and performance of the proposed controller under the bounded disturbance and saturated input than that of a CMRAC.