ME464-Sys Dyn & Ctrl Spring-2013

Dr. Shaukat Ali

Chapter 6

Stability of Feedback Control

Systems

ME464-Sys Dyn & Ctrl Spring-2013

Dr. Shaukat Ali

Outline
6.1: The Concept of Stability
6.2: The Routh-Hurwitz Stability Criterion

ME464-Sys Dyn & Ctrl Spring-2013

Dr. Shaukat Ali

6.1: The Concept of Stability

Stability of a feedback control system
Fundamentally important.
An unstable closed-loop system is of no use in practice.
Many physical systems are inherently open-loop unstable (e.g.
inverted pendulum, etc.).
Among the performance specifications used in design, the
most important requirement is that the system must be stable.
Classification:
Relative stability
Absolute stability

ME464-Sys Dyn & Ctrl Spring-2013

Dr. Shaukat Ali

6.1: The Concept of Stability

Stable system:
A dynamic system with a bounded response to a bounded
input.
Bounded input bounded output (BIBO) stability
A linear time-invariant control system is stable if the output
eventually comes back to its equilibrium state.
It is marginally stable (neutral) if oscillations of the output
continue forever.
It is unstable if the output diverges without bound from its
equilibrium state.

ME464-Sys Dyn & Ctrl Spring-2013

Dr. Shaukat Ali

6.1: The Concept of Stability

The stability of a cone:

ME464-Sys Dyn & Ctrl Spring-2013

Dr. Shaukat Ali

6.1: The Concept of Stability

Unit impulse response of a second order system for
various poles on s-plane

ME464-Sys Dyn & Ctrl Spring-2013

Dr. Shaukat Ali

6.1: The Concept of Stability

Stability in the s-plane

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Dr. Shaukat Ali

6.1: The Concept of Stability

Mathematical description
Consider the first-order differential equation:
dy t
dt

ay t r t

where 'a' is a constant

Transfer function
Y s
R s

1
sa

Unit impulse response: y t e at , t 0

There are three cases:
i) a > 0, y() = 0 stable
ii) a = 0, y() = 1 neutral (marginally stable)
iii) a < 0, y() = unstable

Stability is related to
The location of poles of the system transfer function
ME464-Sys Dyn & Ctrl Spring-2013

Dr. Shaukat Ali

6.1: The Concept of Stability

ME464-Sys Dyn & Ctrl Spring-2013

Dr. Shaukat Ali

6.1: The Concept of Stability

A necessary and sufficient condition for a feedback system to
be stable is that ALL THE POLES of the system transfer
function have NEGATIVE REAL PARTS.

ME464-Sys Dyn & Ctrl Spring-2013

Dr. Shaukat Ali

6.1: The Concept of Stability

Consider the transfer function of a feedback control
system:
T s

bm s

b m 1 s

a n s a n 1 s
n

m 1

n 1

b1 s b o
a1 s a o

To check for stability, we have to find the poles of the

system.
Poles of the system are the roots of the characteristic
equation D s a n s n a n 1 s n 1 a1 s a o 0
The necessary conditions (but not sufficient) for the stability
are:
All the coefficients have the same sign.
Non of the coefficients are zero.
ME464-Sys Dyn & Ctrl Spring-2013

Dr. Shaukat Ali

6.2: The Routh-Hurwitz Stability Criterion

RH stability method is used to assess systems stability
This method allow us to compute the number of poles in the
right half plane without computing the values of poles.
The RH criterion is a necessary and sufficient criterion for
the stability of linear systems.

ME464-Sys Dyn & Ctrl Spring-2013

Dr. Shaukat Ali

6.2: The Routh-Hurwitz Stability Criterion

The Routh-Hurwitz Criterion
Take the characteristic equation:
n
n 1
D s a n s a n 1 s
a1 s a o

Make the Routh array/table:

s
s
s
s

n 1
n2
n3

an

an2

an4

a n 1

an3

an5

b1

b2

b3

c1

c2

c3

h1

ME464-Sys Dyn & Ctrl Spring-2013

Dr. Shaukat Ali

6.2: The Routh-Hurwitz Stability Criterion

Investigate the signs of the coefficients in the fist
column of Routh array.
The number of roots of the characteristic equation with
positive real parts is equal to the number of changes in sign
of the first column of the Routh array

ME464-Sys Dyn & Ctrl Spring-2013

Dr. Shaukat Ali

6.2: The Routh-Hurwitz Stability Criterion

Application of Routh's stability criterion in control
system analysis
The R-H criterion can be used to determine the range of the
parameter values which maintain a stable system.

Example:
Consider closed-loop system shown below. Using the R-H
criterion, determine the range of K over which the system is
stable.

ME464-Sys Dyn & Ctrl Spring-2013

Dr. Shaukat Ali

6.2: The Routh-Hurwitz Stability Criterion

Example continued
Transfer function:

Rouths table

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Dr. Shaukat Ali

6.2: The Routh-Hurwitz Stability Criterion

For stability, all the coefficients in the first column of
the Routh's table must be positive, i.e. we require:
4K/5 - 6 > 0 leading to K > 15/2
and K > 0

Therefore we choose a value for K > 15/2 for stability

ME464-Sys Dyn & Ctrl Spring-2013

Dr. Shaukat Ali

Example 6.5
Determine the range of (K) and (a) for which the
system is stable.

ME464-Sys Dyn & Ctrl Spring-2013

Dr. Shaukat Ali