Chapter -4

Stability of Control System

STABILITY
A process to find out if a system is stable or not.
• A system is stable if every bounded input yields a bounded output.
• A system is unstable if any bounded input yields an unbounded output.
• In the absence of input, output may not be returning to zero. It shows
certain output without input.
STABILITY According to the roots obtained by the characteristic equation.

If all the roots of the characteristic equation lie on the right

half of the 'S' plane then the system is said to be a unstable
system.

If all the roots of the system lie on the left half of the 'S' plane
then the system is said to be an stable system.

If all the roots of the system lie on the imaginary axis of the 'S'
plane then the system is said to be marginally stable.
Relative Stability
• The system is said to be relatively more stable or unstable on the basis
of settling time.
• System is said to be more stable if settling time for that system is
less than that of other system.
• The settling time of the root or pair of complex conjugate roots is
inversely proportional to the real part of the roots.
• So far the roots located near the jω axis, settling time will be large.

The more the poles are located far away from jw-axis
the more is the system relatively stable.
As the roots move away from jω-axis i.e towards left
half of the s-plane settling time becomes lesser or smaller
& system becomes more & more stable.
So the relative stability improves.
When the poles are located far away from jω-axis in left half of the s-plane , the
response decays to zero much faster, as compared to the poles close to jω-axis.

Because this yield either pure exponential decay or damped

sinusoidal natural response. These natural response decay zero
as time approaches infinity.
Type s of Systems based on Stability
1. Conditionally stable system
2. Absolutely stable system
3. Marginally stable system
Conditionally Stable system:
Output is bounded only for certain condition. If this condition is
violated, o/p is unbounded.
If the system is stable for a certain range of system component
values, then it is known as conditionally stable system.
Stability depends on condition of parameter of the system.
Type s of Systems based on Stability
Absolutely Stable System
• If the system is stable for all the range of system component values, then
it is known as the absolutely stable system.
• The open loop control system is absolutely stable if all the poles of the
open loop transfer function present in left half of ‘s’ plane.
• Similarly, the closed loop control system is absolutely stable if all the
poles of the closed loop transfer function present in the left half of the ‘s’
plane.
Critically or Marginally Stable system
• If the system is stable by producing an output signal (oscillates ) with
constant amplitude and constant frequency of oscillations for bounded
input, then it is known as marginally stable system.
 Critically or Marginally Stable system:
Output response of such systems is as For such system one or more pairs of non-repeated
shown in fig roots are located on the imaginary axis but there are
no roots in the right half of s-plane, as shown in fig

The open loop control system is marginally stable if any two poles
of the open loop transfer function is present on the imaginary axis.

for a bounded i/p, o/p with constant frequency and amplitude.

Such oscillations are called Damped or sustained oscillations.
Control Systems - Stability Analysis
• The analysis of whether the given system can reach steady state after passing
through the transients successfully is called the stability analysis of the system.
• The stability analysis in the ‘s’ domain using the Routh-Hurwitz stability
criterion.
• This criterion is also known as modified Hurwitz Criterion of stability of the
system or Routh-Hurwitz (R-H) Stability Criterion.
• In this criterion, we require the characteristic equation to find the stability of the
closed loop control systems.
• Stability criteria if all the elements of the first column are positive then the system
will be stable.
• However if anyone of them is negative the system will be unstable.
• Now there are some special cases related to Routh Stability Criteria which are
discussed below:
Routh’s Stability Criterion
• Routh’s Stability Criterion, enables us to determine the number of closed
loop poles that lie in the right and left half of the s-plane without having to
factor the denominator polynomial.
• The T.F. of any linear closed loop system can be represented as,

• Where ‘a’ and ‘b’ are constants and m ≤ n.

• The Routh Stability criterion is a method for determining system stability
that can be applied to an nth order characteristic equation of the form.
Routh’s Stability Criterion
• Consider the general characteristic equation of the system as

• Now there are n determinants for nth order characteristic equation.

• Thus the roots of the characteristic equation are the closed loop
poles of the system which decide the stability of the system.
• This represents a method of determining the location of poles of a
characteristics equation with the respect to the left half & right half
of the s-plane without actually solving the equation.
Routh Array Method
• If all the roots of the characteristic equation exist to the left half of the ‘s’ plane, then
the control system is stable.
• If at least one root of the characteristic equation exists to the right half of the ‘s’ plane,
then the control system is unstable.
• So, we have to find the roots of the characteristic equation to know whether the control
system is stable or unstable.
• But, it is difficult to find the roots of the characteristic equation as order increases.
• So,to overcome this problem there we have the Routh array method.
• In this method, there is no need to calculate the roots of the characteristic equation.
• This method requires two steps:
Generate a data table called a Routh table.
interpret the Routh table to tell how many closed-loop system poles are in the LHP, the
RHP, and on the 𝒋𝒘-axis.
Follow this procedure for forming the Routh table.
 Let us first construct routh array.
 Fill the first two rows of the Routh array with the coefficients of the
characteristic polynomial as mentioned in the table .
 Start with the coefficient of 𝑠 𝑛 and continue up to the coefficient of 𝑠 0 .
• The first row will consist of all the even terms of the characteristic equation.
• Arrange them from first (even term) to last (even term).
• The first row is written below: a0 a2 a4 a6…………
• The second row will consist of all the odd terms of the characteristic equation.
• Arrange them from first (odd term) to last (odd term).
• The second row is written below: a1 a3 a5 a7………..
Continue this process till you get the first column element of row 𝑠 0 .
The following table shows the Routh array of the nth order characteristic polynomial
Routh’s array method
• It is also called Routh’s array method or Routh’s Hurwitz method.
• First formulate the Routh table and find the number of the sign
changes in the first column of the Routh table.
• The number of sign changes in the first column of the Routh table
gives the number of roots of characteristic equation that exist in the
left half of the ‘s’ plane and the control system is stable.
• The Routh-Hurwitz criterion states that “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”.
Routh’s Stability Criterion
• Routh’s Stability Criterion is having one necessary condition and one
sufficient condition for stability.
1) Part one (necessary condition for stability of the system):
All the coefficients off the polynomial have the same sign.
All the coefficients of the characteristic equation should be positive
and real. This implies that all the roots of the characteristic equation
should have negative real parts.
All the coefficients of the characteristic equation should be non zero.
None of the coefficients of the characteristic equation should be
missing or zero value .
Routh stability criterion
• If any control system doesn’t satisfy the necessary condition, then we can say that
the control system is unstable.
• But, if the control system satisfies the necessary condition, then it may or may
not be stable.
• So, the sufficient condition is helpful for knowing whether the control system is
stable or not.
2) Part two (sufficient condition for stability of the system):
• The sufficient condition is that all the elements of the first column of the Routh
array should have the same sign.
• This means that all the elements of the first column of the Routh array should be
either positive or negative.
• The sufficient condition for having all roots of characteristics equation in left half
of s-plane .
 Each column will reduce by one as we move down the array.
This process is obtained till last row is obtained.

The necessary & sufficient conditions for a system to be

stable is all terms in the first column at Routh’s Array
should have same sign.
There should not be any sign change in first column.

When there are sign changes in the first

column of Routh’s array then the system is
unstable.
There are roots in RHP.
The number of sign changes equal the
number of roots in RHP.
Let us find the stability of the control system having characteristic
equation,

• Step 1 − Verify the necessary condition for the Routh-Hurwitz

stability.
• All the coefficients of the characteristic polynomial,

• are positive. So, the control system satisfies the necessary

condition.
• Step 2 − Form the Routh array for the given characteristic polynomial.
Step 2 − Form the Routh array for the given characteristic polynomial.

Step 3 − Verify the sufficient condition for the Routh-Hurwitz

stability.

All the elements of the first column of the Routh array are positive.
There is no sign change in the first column of the Routh array.
 So, the control system is stable.
• Example-1: Find the stability of the continues system having the characteristic equation of

•
The Routh table of the given system is computed as;

• Since there are no sign changes in the first column of the Routh table, it means that all the roots of
the characteristic equation have negative real parts and hence this system is stable.

Note that, there should not be any term missing in the nth order characteristic equation.
This means that the nth order characteristic equation should not have any coefficient that is of zero
value.

Note − If any row elements of the Routh table have some common factor, then you can divide the row
elements with that factor for the simplification will be easy.
• Example-2: Find the stability of the continues system having the characteristic
polynomial of a third order system is given below

• The Routh array is

• Because TWO changes in sign appear in the first column, we find that two roots of
the characteristic equation lie in the right hand side of the s-plane. Hence the
system is unstable.
Closed-loop control system with T(s) = Y(s)/R(s) = 1/(s3 + s2+ 2s+24).
Routh array for the closed-loop control system with T(s) = Y(s)/R(s) = 1/(s3+ s2 +2s+24)
• Example-4: Find the stability of the system shown below using Routh criterion.
The close loop transfer function is shown in the figure

The Routh table of the system is shown in the table

• Because TWO changes in sign appear in the first column and has two roots of the characteristic
equation lie in the right hand side of the s-plane. Hence the system is unstable.
 The gain is kept in terms of k and Routh’s array is solved to find k for stable operation.

• Example-3: Determine a rang of values of a system parameter K for which

the system is stable.
• The Routh table of the given system is computed and shown is the table below;

• For system stability, it is necessary that the conditions 8 – k >0, and 1 + k > 0,
must be satisfied.
• Hence the rang of values of a system parameter k must be lies between -1 and 8
(i.e., -1 < k < 8).
Exam types
 Special Cases of Routh Array

Special Cases or Configurations in the First Column Array of the Routh’s Table:
It is difficult to complete the Routh table from these two situations.
The two special cases are −
1) The first element of any row of the Routh’s array is zero.
2) All the elements of any row of the Routh’s array are zero.
Let us now discuss how to overcome the difficulty in these two cases, one by one
Special case I:
First Element of any row of the Routh’s array is zero
If any row of the Routh’s array contains only the first element as zero and at
least one of the remaining elements have non-zero value, then replace the first
element with a small positive integer, epsilon ϵ.
And then continue the process of completing the Routh’s table.
Special Cases of Routh’s Criterion
• Special case I:

Substitute a small positive number ‘€’ in place of a zero

occurred as a first element in a row.
Complete the array with this number ‘€’.
Special Cases of Routh Array
• Special case I:
• First Element of any row of the Routh’s array is zero
• If any row of the Routh’s array contains only the first element as zero and
at least one of the remaining elements have non-zero value, then replace
the first element with a small positive integer, epsilon ϵ.
• And then continue the process of completing the Routh’s table.
• Now, find the number of sign changes in the first column of the Routh’s
table by substituting ϵ tends to zero.
• The value ε is then allowed to approach zero from either the positive or
the negative side, after which the signs of the entries in the first column can
be determined.
• Following two methods are used to remove above said difficulty.
• First method: Consider above Example

Step 3 − Verify the sufficient condition for

the Routh-Hurwitz stability.
As ϵ tends to zero, the Routh table becomes
like this.
• To examine sign change,
• Routh’s array is,

As there are two sign changes, system is unstable.

Special Cases of Routh Array
• Special case I:
• If the first element of a row is zero, division by zero would be required to form the
next row.
• To avoid this phenomenon, an epsilon, ε, (a small positive number) is assigned to
replace the zero in the first column.
• By replacing zero with (ε) we will calculate all the elements of the Routh array.
• After calculating all the elements we will apply the limit at each element
containing (ε).
• On solving the limit at every element if we will get positive limiting value then
we will say the given system is stable otherwise in all the other condition we will
say the given system is unstable.
• A method to overcome above problem is to replace s by and complete the Routh’s
test for z.
Case I-Second method:
• To solve the above difficulty one more method can be used. In this, replace ‘S’ by ‘1/Z’ in
original equation.
• Taking L.C.M rearrange characteristic equation in descending powers of ‘Z’.
• Then complete the routh’s array with this new equation in ‘Z’ & examine the stability
with this array.
• Example-Let us find the stability of the control system having
characteristic equation,

• Step 1 − Verify the necessary condition for the Routh-Hurwitz

stability.
• All the coefficients of the characteristic polynomial,

are positive. So, the control system satisfied the necessary condition.
• Step 2 − Form the Routh array for the given characteristic polynomial.

The row s3 elements have 2 as the common factor.

So, all these elements are divided by 2
Special case I− Only the first element of row s2 is zero.
So, replace it by ϵ and continue the process of completing the Routh table.
• Step 3 − Verify the sufficient condition for the Routh-Hurwitz stability.
• As ϵ tends to zero, the Routh table becomes like this.

There are two sign changes in the first column of Routh table.
Hence, the control system is unstable.
 Special Cases of Routh’s Criterion

• Special case II
• All the Elements of any row of the Routh’s array are zero
• In this case, follow these two steps −
 Write the auxilary equation, A(s) of the row, which is just above the
row of zeros.
Take the derivative the auxiliary equation, A(s) with respect to s and
replace it’s coefficients in the present row of zeros.
• Then proceed for Routh’s test.
 Special case II

Procedure to eliminate this difficulty

1. Form an equation by using the coefficients of row which is just above the row of zeros.
Such an equation is called an Auxillary equation denoted as A(s). For above case such
an equation is,

A(s) = d𝑆 4 + 2
𝑒𝑠 + f
Note that the coefficients of any row are corresponding to alternate powers of ‘s’ starting from the power indicated against
it.
So ‘d’ is coefficient corresponding to s4 so first term is ds4of A(s).
Next coefficient ‘e’ is corresponding to alternate power of ‘s’ from 4 i.e. S2
.Hence the term es2& so on.
 Special case II

• 2. Taking derivative of auxillary equation with respect to ‘s’ i.e.

3. Replace row of zeros by the coefficients of

4. Complete the array of zeros by the coefficients

• Special case II-Example1
• Let us find the stability of the control system having characteristic
equation,

• Step 1 − Verify the necessary condition for the Routh-Hurwitz

stability.
• All the coefficients of the given characteristic polynomial are positive.
So, the control system satisfied the necessary condition.
Special case II-Example1

• Step 2 − Form the Routh array for the given characteristic polynomial.

The row s4 elements have the common factor of 3. So, all these elements are
divided by 3.
Special case (ii) − All the elements of row s3s3 are zero. So, write the auxiliary
equation, A(s) of the row s4
Special case II-Example1
Special case II-Example-1
• Step 3 − Verify the sufficient condition for the Routh-Hurwitz stability.
• There are two sign changes in the first column of Routh table.
• Hence, the control system is unstable.
• In the Routh-Hurwitz stability criterion, we can know whether the
closed loop poles are in on left half of the ‘s’ plane or on the right half
of the ‘s’ plane or on an imaginary axis.
• So, we can’t find the nature of the control system.
• To overcome this limitation, there is a technique known as the root
locus.
• Determine the number of right-half-plane poles in the closed-loop
transfer function.
• First we return to the row immediately above the row of zeros and
form an auxiliary polynomial, using the entries in that row as
coefficients.
• Next we differentiate the polynomial with respect to s and obtain

• Finally, we use the coefficients of above equation to replace the row of

zeros.
• Again, for convenience, the third row is multiplied by 1/4 after
replacing the zeros.
Both case
Advantages of Routh’s Criterion
• it is a simple algebraic method to determine the stability of closed loop
without solving for roots of higher order polynomial of the
characteristics equation.
• It is not tedious or time consuming.
• It progress systematically.
• It is frequently used to determine the conditions of absolute & relative
stability of a system.
• It can determine range of k for stable operation.
Disadvantages of Routh’s Criterion
• It is valid only for real coefficients of characteristics equation. Any
coefficient that is a complex number or contains exponential factors,
the test fails.
• It is applicable only to the linear systems.
• Exact location of poles is not known.
• Only idea is obtained about stability. A method to stabilize the system
is not suggested
Disadvantages of Hurwitz’s Method:
1. For higher order system, to solve the determinants of higher order is
very complicated & time consuming.
2. Number of roots located in right half of s-plane for unstable system
cannot be judged by this method.
3. Difficult to predict marginal stability of the system.

• Due to these limitations, a new method is suggested by the

scientist Routh called Routh’s Method.
• It is also called Routh-Hurwitz method.