Stability & Root Locus

Stability
The stability of a system depends on the locations of the poles and zeros within the system. A continuous system is stable if all poles are on the left half of the complex plane. A discrete system is stable if all poles are within a unit circle centered at the origin of the complex plane. Additionally, both types of systems are stable if they do not contain any poles. Additionally, both types of systems are unstable if they contain more than one pole at the origin.

Stability
In terms of the dynamic response, a pole is stable if the response of the pole decays over time. If the response becomes larger over time, the pole is unstable. If the response remains unchanged over time, the pole is marginally stable. To describe a system as stable, all the closed-loop poles of a system must be stable.

Stability
Use the CD Pole-Zero Map VI to obtain all the poles and zeros of a system and plot their corresponding locations in the complex plane. Use the CD Stability VI to determine if a system is stable, unstable, or marginally stable.

Using the Root Locus Method

The root locus method provides the closed-loop pole positions for all possible changes in the loop gain K. Root locus plots provide an important indication of what gain ranges you can use to keep the closed-loop system stable. The root locus is a plot on the real-imaginary axis showing the values of s that correspond to pole locations for all gains, starting at the open-loop poles, K = 0 and ending at K = .

Using the Root Locus Method

Use the CD Root Locus VI to compute and draw root locus plots for continuous and discrete SISO models of any form. You also can use this VI to synthesize a controller.

Root Locus Method Example 1

Root Locus Method Example 1