Root-Locus Analysis and Design

Reference: Phillips and Habor

2
s  2s  K
 The polynomial is second order, and the system is stable for all positive
values of K.
 It is not evident how the value of K affects the transient response.
 Example: suppose we want the damping ratio equal to 0.707. Then from:
s 2  2 n s   n2
we have: 2 n 2(0.707) n 2
or :  n 0.707 and  n2 2
Hence the design requires K 2.
The preceding design is simple but we have satisfied only one
specification. There might be more specifications for rise time, settling
time, steady-state accuracy, etc. However, usually we need to consider
trade-offs: that is, choose a value of K that satisfies all design
specifications approximately but none exactly.

To do this we plot the roots of the characteristic equation in the s-plane.

 2  4  4K
s  1  1  K
2
The roots are real and - ve for 0  K 1.
For K  1 : roots  1  j K  1   n  j n 1   2
 n 180 cos  1 
 For K=0: two roots are real, one at 0 and one at –2.
 As K increases from 0 to 1: two roots are real, one moves from 0
towards
–1, while the other root moves from –2 towards –1. For 0<K<1: two
roots are real and negative (system is overdamped) with different time
constants.
 For K=1: two roots are equal and real (= -1), the system is critically
damped.
 As K increases from 1: two roots are complex conjugate with real part
equal -1, one root moves up and the other moves down along the
vertical line s= -1.
 For K>1: the roots are complex with
a time constant of 1 sec, with the value
of  decreasing as K increases. As K
increases, so are the complex roots,
therefore the overshoot in the transient
response increases.
 The plot of the roots of the characteristic equation as some
parameter varies gives us a great deal of information about
changes in the natural response of the system as the
parameter is varied.
 The characteristics of the natural response are evident from
this plot, but the amplitudes of of its various components are
not.
 Root Locus: A root locus of a system is a plot of the roots
of the system characteristic equation as some parameter of
the system is varied.
 http://www.engin.umich.edu/group/ctm/rlocus/
rlocus.html
 Closed-Loop Poles
 The root locus of a transfer function H(s) is a plot of the
locations (locus) of all possible closed loop poles with
proportional gain K and unity feedback:

 The closed-loop transfer function is:

and thus the poles of the closed loop system are values of s such
that 1 + K H(s) = 0.
 If we write H(s) = b(s)/a(s), then the denominator has the
form:
 Let n = order of a(s) and m = order of b(s) [the order of a
polynomial is the highest power of s that appears in it].
 We will consider all positive values of k. In the limit as K ->
0, the poles of the closed-loop system are a(s) = 0 or the
poles of H(s). In the limit as K -> infinity, the poles of the
closed-loop system are b(s) = 0 or the zeros of H(s).
 If H(s) has more poles than zeros (as is often the case), m < n
and we say that H(s) has zeros at infinity. In this case, the
limit of H(s) as s -> infinity is zero. The number of zeros at
infinity is n-m, the number of poles minus the number of
zeros, and is the number of branches of the root locus that go
to infinity (asymptotes).
 No matter what is the value of K, the closed-loop system
must always have n poles, where n is the number of poles
of H(s). The root locus must have n branches, each branch
starts at a pole of H(s) and goes to a zero of H(s).
 Since the root locus is actually the locations of all possible
closed loop poles, from the root locus we can select a gain
such that our closed-loop system will perform the way we
want. If any of the selected poles are on the right half plane,
the closed-loop system will be unstable. The poles that are
closest to the imaginary axis have the greatest influence on
the closed-loop response, so even though the system has three
or four poles, it may still act like a second or even first order
system depending on the location(s) of the dominant pole(s).
 Plotting the root locus of a transfer function
 Consider an open loop system which has a transfer function o


How do we design a feed-back controller for the system by
using the root locus method? Say our design criteria are 5%
overshoot and 1 second rise time.
 Make a MATLAB file called rl.m. Enter the transfer function,
and the command to plot the root locus:
num=[1 7];
den=conv(conv([1 0],[1 5]),conv([1 15],[1
20]));
sys=tf(num,den);
rlocus(sys)
axis([-22 3 -15 15])


 Choosing a value of K from the root locus
 The plot above shows all possible closed-loop pole
locations for a pure proportional controller. Obviously not
all of those closed-loop poles will satisfy our design
criteria. To determine what part of the locus is acceptable,
we can use the command sgrid(Zeta,Wn) to plot lines of
constant damping ratio and natural frequency. Its two
arguments are the damping ratio (Zeta) and natural
frequency (Wn) [these may be vectors if you want to look
at a range of acceptable values]. In our problem, we need
an overshoot less than 5% (which means a damping ratio
Zeta of greater than 0.7) and a rise time of 1 second (which
means a natural frequency Wn greater than 1.8).
 Enter in the MATLAB command window:
zeta=0.7;
Wn=1.8;
sgrid(zeta, Wn)
 On the plot above, the two dotted lines at about a 45 degree
angle indicate pole locations with Zeta = 0.7; in between these
lines, the poles will have Zeta > 0.7 and outside of the lines
Zeta < 0.7. The semicircle indicates pole locations with a
natural frequency Wn = 1.8; inside the circle, Wn < 1.8 and
outside the circle Wn > 1.8. (Note: to understand this, refer to
the Text p. 128, Eq.(4-34) and Fig. 4.10, as well as p. 122, and
Fig. 4.8).
 Going back to our problem, to make the overshoot less than
5%, the poles have to be in between the two white dotted
lines, and to make the rise time shorter than 1 second, the
poles have to be outside of the white dotted semicircle. So
now we know only the part of the locus outside of the
semicircle and in between the two lines are acceptable. All the
poles in this location are in the left-half plane, so the closed-
loop system will be stable.
 From the plot above we see that there is part
of the root locus inside the desired region. So
in this case we need only a proportional
controller to move the poles to the desired
region. You can use rlocfind command in
MATLAB to choose the desired poles on the
locus:
 [k,poles] = rlocfind(sys)
 Click on the plot the point where you want
the closed-loop pole to be. You may want to
select the points indicated in the plot below to
satisfy the design criteria.