UCSI University Faculty of Engineering

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Department of Mechatronics

Lecture 11
System Stability

Mohd Sulhi bin Azman

Lecturer
Department of Mechatronics
UCSI University
sulhi@ucsi.edu.my

1 August 2011

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Contents
Poles, Zeros, Gain and Pole-Zero Map
Applications in MATLAB
Stable, Marginally Unstable & Unstable
Necessary condition for stability
Routh stability criterion
Hurwitz stability criterion
Routh-Hurwitz Criterion
Stability of State Variable System

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 Definitions
Poles
Poles are the roots of D(s) (the denominator of the
transfer function), obtained by setting D(s) = 0 and
solving for s.
Zeros
The roots of the numerator of the transfer function
obtained by setting N(s) = 0 and solving for s.
Gain

Pole-Zero Map
A plot of poles and zeros.

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Tease Your Brain

Consider the following function. Determine the
poles and zeros and plot them on p-z map.

3( s + 4)
G (s) =
s 2 + 2s + 5

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 Definitions
A stable system has a closed-loop transfer
functions with poles only in the left half plane.

An unstable system has a closed-loop transfer

functions with at least one pole in the right half
plane and/or poles of multiplicity greater than
one on the imaginary axis.

A marginally stable system has closed-loop

transfer functions with only imaginary axis poles
of multiplicity 1 and poles in the left half plane.
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Stability

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 Example 1
Test the stability for the following system:

1
G(s) =
( s + a )( s + b )

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Solution to Example 1
Taking the inverse Laplace transforms:

1 1 k1 k
L 1 =L + 2 = k1e at + k2 e bt
( s + a )( s + b ) s + a s +b

Poles in the LHP System Response

Step Response
1.4

Im 1.2

0.8
Amplitude

0.6

Re 0.4

-a -b 0.2

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time (sec)

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 Example 2
Test the stability for the following system:

1
F (s) =
( s a )( s b )

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Solution to Example 2
Taking the inverse Laplace transform:

1 1 k1 k
L 1 =L + 2 = k1eat + k2 ebt
( s a )( s b ) s a s b

Poles in the RHP System Response

5
x 10 Step Res ponse

Im 5

-5
Amplitude

-10

Re
-15

a b
-20
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time (sec )

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 Bounded Solution
A system is said to be stable if every bounded input produced a
bounded output. The following system shows a stable system:

The following is unstable system:

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Bounded Signals
The following diagram shows a BIBO stable system:

bounded signal bounded

(within limits)
signal

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 Unbounded Signals
The following shows unbounded signals:

x3
x4

Unbounded
signal
Unbounded
signal

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Conditions for Stability

There are two conditions in order for a system
to be stable. The first condition is the
sufficient condition and the second condition
is the necessary condition.

The sufficient condition is the minimum

requirement in order for a system to be stable.

The necessary condition is a must condition in

order for a system to be stable.

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 Necessary Condition for Stability
Consider the following characteristic equation:
q ( s ) = a0 s n + a1s n 1 + a2 s n 2 + + an 1s + an = 0

The stability of this system may be determined by

solving this characteristic equation. Solving this equation
will yield roots of the characteristic equation.

The necessary but insufficient condition for the

stability of a system is that all coefficients of the
above characteristic equation be real and have the same
signs. Furthermore, none of the coefficients should be
zero.

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Necessary Condition for Stability

We also take note of the following results:
1. If all the roots of the characteristic equation have negative
real parts, then the system is stable.

2. If any root of the characteristic equation has a positive real

part of if there is a repeated root on the jw-axis, then the
system is unstable (because it lies on the right-half plane).

3. If some of the coefficients are zero or negative, then it can

be concluded that the system is unstable.

4. If all the coefficients of the characteristic equation has the

same signs, then the possibility of the stability exists and one
should proceed further to examine the sufficient condition of
stability.

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 Necessary Condition for Stability
Theorem:
1. The positive-ness of the coefficients of characteristic
equation is necessary as well as sufficient condition for
stability of system of a first and second order.

2. The positive-ness of the coefficients of the characteristic

equation ensures that the negative-ness of real roots, but it
does not ensure the negative-ness of the real parts of the
complex roots for third and higher order systems.

In sum, a necessary and sufficient condition for a feedback

system to be stable is that all of the poles of the system transfer
function must have negative real parts.

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Theorem 1 : Proof
Consider the first order characteristic
equation: q( s) = a0 s + a1 = 0

a1 Thus, it is now proved that the positive-ness of all

Then: s = coefficients of the characteristic equation ensures a
a0 negative roots that is, the system is stable.

Your turn: prove Theorem 1 for q( s) = a0 s + a1s + a2 = 0

2

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 Theorem 2 : Proof
Your turn prove Theorem 2 by using the following
equation:
s3 + s 2 + 2s + 8 = 0

You shall see that the real part of the complex roots is
positive, thus indicating the instability if the system
even though all of the coefficients of the characteristic
equation are positive.

Therefore, for systems of three and higher order, we

need another method/way of examining the stability of
the system. And this is shown in the next slide.

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Routh & Hurwitz Stability Criterion

The Routh and Hurwitz criterion is used to
further examine the stability of a system.

The Hurwitz criterion is in terms of

determinants and the Routh criterion is in terms
of array formulation, which is more convenient
to handle.

In this lecture, I shall combine both method to

give Routh-Hurwitz criterion.

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 Stability in s-domain
Besides sketching the pole-zero map, we can
also determine the stability of the system in s-
domain by using the Routh-Hurwitz Criterion.

The method tells how many (not where) poles

are there in each section of the s-plane : the
right half-plane (RHP), left half-plane (LHP) and
on the j-axis.

We need to create a Routh table first, then only

can we test the stability of the system.
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Routh Table
Given the following polynomial:

p ( s ) = an s n + an 1s n 1 + an 2 s n 2 + + a2 s 2 + a1s + a0

The Routh table is given as:

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 Routh Table
Where the computation of b and c is given as:

an 1an 2i an an 2i 1
bi =
an 1
c1an 2i 1 bi +1an 1
ci =
b1

We note that a sign change in the first column indicate

that the system is unstable. And the number of changes
of sign equals the number of roots with positive real
parts. And this is known as the Routh-Hurwitz stability
criterion.

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Steps to Create Routh Table

There are essentially two (2) steps that needs
to be followed in creating a Routh table.

Step 1
Generate a data table called the Routh table.

Step 2
Interpret the Routh table

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 Creating Routh Table : Step 1
Step 1a:
Begin by labeling the rows with powers of s from
the highest power of the denominator of the closed
loop transfer function until s0.

Step 1b:
Next, start with the coefficient of the highest power
of s in the denominator and list, horizontally in the
first row every other coefficient.

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Creating Routh Table : Step 1

Step 1c:
In the second row, list horizontally starting with the next
highest power of s, every coefficient that was skipped in the
first row.

Step 1d:
Each of the remaining entry is a negative determinant of entries
in the previous two rows, divided by the entry in the first
column directly above the calculated row.
Two left hand column of the determinant is always the first
column of the previous two rows; and, the right hand column is
the elements of the column above and to the right.
The table is completed when all of the rows are completed down
to s0.

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 Creating Routh Table : Step 2
Step 2 interpret your results.
If there are no sign changes (i.e. from positive to
negative) in the first column, then the system is
stable.
If there are sign changes in the first column, then
the system is unstable.

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Example 3
Generate the Routh Hurwitz table for:

Source : Nise, 2007

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 Solution to Example 3
Step 1 : Generate the Routh table:

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Solution to Example 3
Step 2 : Interpret your result.
The number of roots of the polynomial that are in the
right-half plane is equal to the number of sign
changes in the first column.
And the system is stable if there are no sign changes
in the first column of the Routh table.

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 Special Case
There are two special cases which can sometimes occur:

1. A zero in the first column of the row.

In this case, we need to use the epsilon method where if only
one element in the array is zero, it may then be replaced with a
small positive number , that is allowed to approach zero after
completing the array. This will be shown in Example 4.

2. Entire row consisting of zeros.

In this case, we need to establish an auxiliary (helping) polynomials
which immediately precedes the zero entry in the Routh array.
The order of the auxiliary polynomial is always even and indicates
the number of symmetrical roots pairs of the characteristic
equation. This is further discussed in Example 5.

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Example 4
In this example, you shall see that the entire
first column is zero. Therefore, we need to use
the epsilon method.

Generate a Routh table for the following

system:
10
T (s) = 5
s + 2 s 4 + 3s 3 + 6 s 2 + 5s + 3

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 Solution to Example 4
Step 1 : Generate the Routh table.

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Solution to Example 4
Further analysis:

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 Solution to Example 4
Step 2 : interpret your result.
The system is unstable, regardless whether we
choose a positive or negative epsilon.

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Summary of Steps When First Column is Zero

If the first element of a row is zero, then to
form the next row will involve with division by
zero.

To avoid this, an epsilon, , is used to replace

zero in the first column.

Then the value is allowed to approach zero

either from the positive or negative side, after
which the signs of the entries in the first
column can be determined.
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 Example 5
In this example, you shall see that the entire row is
zero. Were going to form auxiliary equation and use
differentiation to compute the values of the next row.
Note that an entire row of zeros will appear in the
Routh table when a purely even or purely odd power of
polynomial is a factor of the original polynomial.
Generate a Routh table for the following system.

10
T (s) =
s + 7 s + 6 s + 42 s 2 + 8s + 56
5 4 3

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Solution to Example 5
The Routh table is given by:

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 Solution to Example 5
The row s3 is now zero. So, at row s4, we form an
auxiliary (additional) polynomial :

P( s) = s 4 + 6s 2 + 8
Next, we differentiate and we get:

P( s ) = 4 s 3 + 12 s + 0
Then, use the coefficients of the
differentiated function and then place it in our
Routh table; and proceed as usual.

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Summary of Steps When Entire Row is Zero

When there is an entire row consists of zeros, there is
an even polynomial that is a factor of the original
polynomial. This case is handled differently from the
first two cases. The steps are:
1. Start by forming the Routh table for the denominator. When
an entire row of zero occurs, then proceed to step 2.
2. Return to the row immediately above the row of zeros and
form an auxiliary polynomial using the entries in that row as
coefficients. The polynomial will start with the power of s in
the label column and continue by skipping every other one and
diminishing in power.
3. Next, differentiate the polynomial with respect to s.
4. Then, use the coefficients to replace the row of zeros.
5. Then, the remainder of the table is formed in a straight
forward manner by following the standard form.

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 Example 6
Example :
Find the value of K, for the following system that will
cause the system to be stable, unstable of marginally
stable.

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Solution to Example 6
Step I : generate the Routh table.

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 Solution to Example 6
Make the following assumption:

K = 1386, K > 1386, K < 1386

For K < 1386, the system is
stable.
For K > 1386, the system is
unstable.
For K = 1386, use the epsilon
method, and therefore, there
are no poles on the right half-
plane, which gives the system to
be marginally stable.

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Recap
What, then again, is the Routh stability criterion?

It 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 coefficients of the first column of the
Routh-Hurwitz array.

It should also be noted that the exact values of the terms in

the first column need not be known; instead, only the signs are
needed.

The necessary and sufficient condition that all roots of the

characteristic equation lie in the left half plane is that all the
coefficients of the characteristic equation be positive and all
terms in the first column of the array have positive signs.

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 Stability in Time Domain
The Routh-Hurwitz criterion is often used in analyzing
the stability of a system represented in transfer
function. It is the necessary and sufficient condition for
stability of a system.

Now, how about analyzing the stability of state space

systems? That is easy. We only need to determine the
eigenvalue(s) of the system.

The stability condition states that if the eigenvalues:

Have positive real parts, then it is an unstable system.
Have negative real parts, then it is a stable system.

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Next Step
Textbook reference : Chapter 6.

Homework 11 has been posted on the course

website. Attempt them. You do not have to
submit Homework 11 as it will not be graded.

Thank You.

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