AbstractIn recent years, more research in the control field has been in the area of self‐learning and adaptable systems, such as a robot that can teach itself to improve its performance. One of the more promising algorithms for self‐learning control systems is Iterative Learning Control (ILC), which is an algorithm capable of tracking a desired trajectory within a specified error limit. Conventional ILC algorithms have the problem of relatively slow convergence rate and adaptability. This paper suggests a novel approach by combining system identification techniques with the proposed ILC approach to overcome the aforementioned problems. The ensuing design procedure is explained and results are accrued from a number of simulation examples. A key point in the proposed scheme is the computation of gain matrices using the steepest descent approach. It has been found that the learning rule can be guaranteed to converge if certain conditions are satisfied.Copyright © 2010 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society