In this paper a scheme has been proposed for the identification and self-optimization of a non-linear control system, in which controllers have been designed to yield the error output between the non-linear system and the equivalent linear model. The output of the controller is utilized (i) to modify the output of the model for identification and (ii) to modify the output of the non-linear system for self-optimization or adaptive control. In each case the corresponding output is so modified as to minimize the error between the model output and the system output.