Adaptive control schemes for systems with unknown backlash at the plan
t output are developed. In the case of known backlash, a backlash inve
rse controller guarantees exact output tracking. When the backlash cha
racteristics are unknown, adaptive laws are designed to update the con
troller parameters and to guarantee bounded input-output stability. Si
mulations show significant improvements of the system performance achi
eved by such adaptive backlash inverse controllers.