DYSMECen411/412

Control Engineering/Lab

ENGR. RENY BOY S. NAMALATA, ECE

Instructor, School of Mechanical Engineering

Declaration:
This learning module is an exclusive property of Dr. Yanga’s Colleges, Inc., as an essential part of the
REIMAGINED Learning Program for the Academic Year 2020-2021, and shall only be used by and for
DYCIans. No part of this learning module shall be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, and/or sold, without the
consent of DYCI.
 <<Module No. 10>>

<< SYSTEMS STABILITY PART 2 >>

This module offers the understanding that stability is a desired characteristic of any
dynamic system; it refers to the system being well behaved and in control under various
operating conditions. Furthermore, stability of a system relates to its response to inputs
or disturbances. A system which remains in a constant state unless affected by an
external action and which returns to a constant state when the external action is removed
can be considered to be stable.

At the end of this module, you are expected to:

1. know if the system is stable using Routh-Hurwitz method
2. know how to configure the four special cases in the Routh’s table

In control system theory, the Routh–Hurwitz stability criterion is a mathematical test that is
a necessary and sufficient condition for the stability of a linear time invariant (LTI) control
system.

The Routh test is an efficient recursive algorithm that English mathematician Edward John
Routh proposed in 1876 to determine whether all the roots of the characteristic polynomial
of a linear system have negative real parts.

German mathematician Adolf Hurwitz independently proposed in 1895 to arrange the

coefficients of the polynomial into a square matrix, called the Hurwitz matrix, and showed
that the polynomial is stable if and only if the sequence of determinants of its principal
submatrices are all positive.

The two procedures are equivalent, with the Routh test providing a more efficient way to
compute the Hurwitz determinants than computing them directly. A polynomial satisfying
the Routh–Hurwitz criterion is called a Hurwitz polynomial.

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 Before discussing the Routh-Hurwitz Criterion, we will recall what is a stable, unstable
and marginally stable system?

 Stable System: 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 stable system.
 Marginally 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.
 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 unstable system.

We know that for a system with Transfer function;

Input-Output Stability implies that all roots of d(s) are in the Left Half-Plane are all have
negative real part.

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Routh-Hurwitz Stability Criterion:

 It is a method of determining continuous stability

 provides a simple algorithm to decide whether or not the zeros of a polynomial are
all in the left half of the complex plane (such a polynomial is called at times
"Hurwitz"). A Hurwitz polynomial is a key requirement for a linear continuous-time
invariant to be stable (all bounded inputs produce bounded outputs).

 states that any system can be stable if and only if all the roots of the first column
have the same sign and if it does not has the same sign or there is a sign change then
the number of sign changes in the first column is equal to the number of roots of the
characteristic equation in the right half of the s-plane i.e. equals to the number of
roots with positive real parts.

 This is for LTI systems with a This is for LTI systems with a polynomial
denominator (without sin, cos, exponential etc.)

 It determines if all the roots of a polynomial It determines if all the roots of a

polynomial

ƒ lie in the open LHP (left half lie in the open LHP (left half-plane), plane),
ƒ or equivalently, have negative real parts. or equivalently, have negative real parts.

 It also determines the number of roots of a It also determines the number of roots of
a polynomial in the open RHP (right half-plane).

 It does It does NOT explicitly compute the roots.

 is called a necessary and sufficient test of stability because a polynomial that

satisfies the criterion is guaranteed to stable

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Necessary stability conditions:
Conditions that must hold for a polynomial to be Hurwitz.
If any of them fails - the polynomial is not stable. However, they may all hold without
implying stability.

Sufficient stability conditions:

Conditions that if met imply that the polynomial is stable. However, a polynomial may be
stable without implying some or any of them.
The Routh criteria provides condition that are both necessary and sufficient for a
polynomial to be Hurwitz.

Consider a system with characteristic equation:

 All the coefficients of the equation should have the same sign.
 There should be no missing term.
 If all the coefficients have the same sign and there are no missing terms, we have
no guarantee that the system will be stable. For this, we use Routh Hurwitz
Criterion to check the stability of the system. If the above-given conditions are not
satisfied, then the system is said to be unstable. This criterion is given by A.
Hurwitz and E.J. Routh.

Advantages of Routh- Hurwitz Criterion

 We can find the stability of the system without solving the equation.
 We can easily determine the relative stability of the system.
 By this method, we can determine the range of K for stability.
 By this method, we can also determine the point of intersection for root locus with
an imaginary axis.

Limitations of Routh- Hurwitz Criterion

 This criterion is applicable only for a linear system.
 It does not provide the exact location of poles on the right and left half of the S
plane.
 In case of the characteristic equation, it is valid only for real coefficients.
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 The Routh- Hurwitz Criterion:
Consider the following characteristic Polynomial

When the coefficients a0, a1, ......................an are all of the same sign, and none zero

Step 1: Arrange all the coefficients of the above equation in two rows:

Step 2: From these two rows we will form the third row:

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Step 3: Now, we shall form fourth row by using second and third row:

Step 4: We shall continue this procedure of forming a new rows:

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Check the stability of the system whose characteristic equation is given by

Solution
Obtain the arrow of coefficients as follows

Since all the coefficients in the first column are of the same sign, i.e., positive, the given
equation has no roots with positive real parts; therefore, the system is said to be stable.

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Special Cases or Configurations in the First Column Array of the Routh’s table:

Case 1: No element in the first column is zero

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 Special Cases or Configurations in the First Column Array of the Routh’s table:

Case 2: Zero in the First Column

There are two methods how to solve this case:

 Stability via Epsilon Method
 Stability via Reverse Coefficients

 Stability via Epsilon Method:

 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 ( ), a very small positive value is
assigned to replace the zero in the first column
 the value of epsilon is then allowed to approach zero from either positive or
the negative side, after which the signs of the entries in the first column can
be determined

Consider below system and determine the stability having a characteristic equation of:

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Furthermore, consider to check below close loop system and find its stability.

Table 1. The complete Routh table is formed by using the denominator of the
characteristic equation Ts(s).

Table 2. shows the first column of Table 1 along with the resulting signs for
choices of epsilon positive and epsilon negative

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  Stability via Reverse Coefficients
 A polynomial that has the reciprocal roots of the original polynomial
has its roots distributed the same-right half-plane, left half plane or
imaginary axis - because taking the reciprocal of the root value does
not move it to another region
 If we can find the polynomial that has the reciprocal roots of the
original, it is possible that the Routh table for the new polynomial will
not have a zero in the first column
 The polynomial with reciprocal roots is a polynomial with coefficients
written reverse order.
 This method is usually computationally easier than the epsilon
method.

Consider the same closed loop system below, and determine its stability using
reverse coefficient technique:

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 Case 3: The entire row is Zero

 Sometimes while making a Routh table, we find that an entire row consists of
zeros
 This happen because there is an even polynomial that is a factor of the
original polynomial
 This case must be handled differently from the case of a zero in only the first
column of a row.

Problem: Determine the number of right hand plane poles in the closed-loop transfer
function:

Now we are faced with the problem of zeros in the third row.

What we are going to do?

1. Form a new polynomial using the entries in the row above zeros. The polynomial will
start with power of s in that row, and continue by skipping every other power of s, i.e.

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2. Next we differentiate the polynomial with respect to s and obtain

3. Finally the row with all zeros in the Routh table is replaced with the coefficients
derived in step number 2, and continue the table.

We see no sign changes hence no rhp poles.

 Why does an entire row of zeros occur? When a purely odd or even polynomial is
a factor of the original polynomial. (s 4 +6s 2 +8) is an even polynomial as it only
has even power of s.)

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Consider the following feedback system. Determine the value of K1 and K2 that would
make the system stable.

Let:

The closed-loop transfer function is

The denominator polynomial is,

The Routh array is,

For the system to be stable :

which implies that any value of k1 and k2 such that k1k2 > 6 should make the system
stable.
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A more complicated feedback system designed as below. What values of T that
would make the system stable.

Let:

The overall transfer function is,

The characteristic polynomial,

Just going by the necessary condition that says that all coefficients have to be positive
in order for the system to be stable we can write

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But this is not sufficient. So, let us form the Routh array:

So, suppose we assume Q > 0 then,

Since TQ < 1, we can write the last inequality as,

Can T > 1? No, because then 1 − T will be negative and the previous inequality will be
violated as Q > 0.
Can T < 0? Yes, in fact so long as , we have a feasible solution for Q.

This can be easily shown, look at the table on the next page where we get the range of Q
for some given values of T that will satisfy the inequality.

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Interior of the shaded region is the stability region for the system.

That is we can select any value of (Q,T) lying in this region and the resulting system will be
stable.

Note: By interior, we mean all the shaded region without the boundary
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Bibliography:

Ghose, D. (2012). Lecture Notes on Control Systems. Retrieved from

https://www.ssgmce.ac.in/ssgmce/student_resource/Electronics%20&%20
telecommunication%20Engg./CSE_3u/routh%20criterion%202.pdf

Java T Point (n.d). Routh-Hurwitz Criterion. Retrieved from

https://www.javatpoint.com/control-system-routh-hurwitz-stability-criterion

Peet,M. (n.d). System Analysis and Control. Retrieved from

http://control.asu.edu/Classes/MAE318/318Lecture10.pdf

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 Name: _____________________________________________ Rating: ________________
Year and Section:_____________ Professor / Instructor:__________________________
Due of Submission: _____________________________

<< Week No 10. >>

<< SYSTEM STABILITY PART II>>

Answer as required and submit to [email protected] with the following file name
format: [ACT 10B] FAMILY NAME, GIVEN NAME, (if more than two files put -1, -
2 after given name

example [ACT 10B] NAMALATA, RENY BOY

1. How many poles lies in the RHP for below block diagram. Determine if the system is
stable or not.

2. What is the value of K to make the system stable.

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