This research is concerned with the development of a real-time adaptive PPF controller for the active vibration suppression of smart structure. In general, the tuning of the PPF controller is carried out off-line. In this research, the real-time learning algorithm is developed to find the optimal filter frequency of the PPF controller in real time and the efficacy of the algorithm is proved by implementing it in real time. To this end, the adaptive algorithm is developed by applying the gradient descent method to the predefined performance index, which is similar to the method used popularly in the optimization and neural network controller design. The experiment was carried out to verify the validity of the adaptive PPF controller developed in this research. The experimental results showed that adaptive PPF controller is effective for active vibration control of the structure which is excited by either impact or harmonic disturbance. The filter frequency of the PPF controller is tuned in a very short period of time thus proving the efficiency of the adaptive PPF controller.