Intermittent control

Intermittent control is a feedback control method which not only explains some human control systems but also has applications to control engineering.

In the context of control theory, intermittent control provides a spectrum of possibilities between the two extremes of continuous-time and discrete-time control: the control signal consists of a sequence of (continuous-time) parameterised trajectories whose parameters are adjusted intermittently. It is different from discrete-time control in that the control is not constant between samples; it is different from continuous-time control in that the trajectories are reset intermittently. As a class of control theory, intermittent predictive control is more general than continuous control and provides a new paradigm incorporating continuous predictive and optimal control with intermittent, open loop (ballistic) control.