Control often follows predictions: predictive control has been highly successful in producing robust and practical solutions in many real-life, real-time applications. Adaptive prediction covers a variety of ways of adding 'intelligence' to predictive control techniques. Many different groups, with widely varying disciplinary backgrounds and approaches, are tackling the same problem from different angles; these groups are sometimes unaware of alternative approaches from other disciplines.

This book attempts to give a unified and comprehensive coverage of the principles and methods that these groups have developed. It avoids basing its descriptions on very complex mathematical formulations but still gives a rigorous exposure to the subject, and illustrates the theory with many practical examples. It is chiefly aimed at students, researchers and practitioners, but will also be accessible to the non-specialist.