This work addresses data-based control design. The properties inherent to data-based design are discussed under a common theoretical framework. The computational cost is estimated with relation to memory space and number of elementar operations. Simulations present a comparision between the studied methods.

Data-based control design methods most often consist of iterative adjustment of the controller's parameters towards the parameter values which minimize an H2 performance criterion. Typically, batches of input-output data collected from the system are used to feed directly a gradient descent optimization - no process model is used. The convergence to the global minimum of the performance criterion depends on the initial controller parameters, as well as on the size and direction of the steps taken at each iteration. This paper discusses these issues and provides a method for choosing the search direction and the step size at each optimization step so that convergence to the global minimum is obtained with high convergence rate.

The construal of ‘exists’ as a first-order or real predicate is defended against prevailing orthodoxy.