Patent ID: 7039473

Claim:
A computer system for controlling a non-linear physical process, the computer system comprising: a linear controller connected to receive a command signal for control of the non-linear physical process and an output signal from the non-linear physical process, the linear controller generating a control signal based on the command signal, the output signal, and a fixed linear model for the process; and a neural network connected to receive the control signal from the linear controller and the output signal from the non-linear physical process, the neural network receiving the control signal as an input and using the output signal to modify the connection weights of the neural network on-line as the neural network and linear controller are used to control the non-linear physical process, the neural network generating a modified control signal that combines with the control signal output from the linear controller to control the non-linear physical process to correct for errors inherent in modeling the physical process using the fixed linear model.