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INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,

DESIGN & MANUFACTURING, JABALPUR (M.P.)
Lab Manual #4
EC5: Control Systems

Objective: Study of Routh-Hurwitz stability criterion and root locus method using scilab.
Theory:
A control system is said to be stable if and only if all the closed loop poles lie in the left half of the
s plane.
Characteristic equation: when the denominator of closed loop transfer function is equated with zero
the equation obtained is called the characteristic equation of the transfer function.
When closed loop transfer function is,
C(s) G (s )
=
R(s) 1+G (s) H ( s)
Then the characteristic equation is given by:
1+G ( s ) H ( s )=0

Routh-Hurwitz stability criterion:

Most closed loop transfer function will be in the form

m m−1
C( s) b0 s +b1 s +… bm−1 s +b m
=
R( s) a0 s n +a1 s n−1 +… an −1 s +a n

Where a’s and b’s are constants and m ≤n . with the help of Routh-Hurwitz criterion we can
determine the stability of the system without actually factorizing the polynomial. In this method
Routh array is created using a procedure, and sign change is observed to find the number of roots on
the right side of the s plane.

Root locus:
The basic character of the transient response of a closed loop system is closely related to the
location of the closed loop poles depending on the value of the loop gain chosen. It is therefore
important to know how the closed loop poles move in the s plane as the loop gain is varied.

By using the root locus method the designer can predict the effect on the location of the closed
loop poles of varying the gain value or adding open loop poles and/or open loop zeroes.

Root loci for the system are the loci of the closed loop poles as the gain K is varied from zero to
infinity.
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INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,

DESIGN & MANUFACTURING, JABALPUR (M.P.)

Effect of addition of poles and zeros to open loop transfer function:

Effect of addition of poles: The addition of a pole to the open-loop transfer function has the effect of
pulling the root locus to the right, tending to lower the system’s relative stability and to slow down the
settling of the response.

(a) Root locus plot of single pole system

(b) Root locus plot of two pole system
(c) Root locus plot of three pole system

Effect of addition of zeros: The addition of a zero to the open-loop transfer function has the effect of
pulling the root locus to the left, tending to make the system more stable and to speed up the settling
of the response.

(a) Root-locus plot of a three-pole system;

(b), (c), and (d) root-locus plots showing effects of addition of a zero to the three-pole system.
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INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,

DESIGN & MANUFACTURING, JABALPUR (M.P.)

Few examples:
k
1. OLTF: G ( s )=
s2

Ex Figure 1: root locus of example 1

Root locus for this:

Ex Figure 2: step response for different value of k, red (k=100), green (k=10), black (k=1)

time response:
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INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,

DESIGN & MANUFACTURING, JABALPUR (M.P.)
As it can be seen from the time response as we move away from the origin in the direction of
imaginary axis the frequency increases. Thus if we wish to increase/or decrease the frequency of our
response we need to increase/reduce the value imaginary part of the roots.

k
2. OLTF: G ( s )=
s ( s+1)
Root locus for this TF :

Ex Figure 3: root locus plot for OLTP: G(S)=K/s(s+1)

Time response:
For k=0.05
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INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,

DESIGN & MANUFACTURING, JABALPUR (M.P.)

Ex Figure 4: step response for k=0.05(over damped condition)

For k=1

Ex Figure 5: step response for k=1(under damped system)

For k=100
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INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,

DESIGN & MANUFACTURING, JABALPUR (M.P.)

Ex Figure 6: step response for k=100(under damped system)

3. Addition of pole to OLTF:

Now we add a pole to the above transfer function.
The OLTF becomes:
k
G ( s )=
s (s+1)(s +2)
Root locus:

Ex Figure 7: root locus for OLTF: G(s)=k/s(s+1)(s+2)

On adding the pole following things were observed:

(i) The root locus moves towards the right.
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INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,

DESIGN & MANUFACTURING, JABALPUR (M.P.)
(ii) Earlier the system was stable for all the values of k in the range (0,∞), now it is
stable for only some range of k.
(iii) This range of k can be found with the help of root locus or using Routh-Hurwitz
criterion.

Time response for different values of k:

Ex Figure 8: step response for different values of k(=7,0.3125,1.251,6)

4. Addition of zero to OLTF:

Now we add a zero to the above transfer function.
The OLTF becomes:
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INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,

DESIGN & MANUFACTURING, JABALPUR (M.P.)
k ( s+5)
G ( s )=
s (s +1)

Root locus:

Ex Figure 9: root locus for OLTF: G(s)=k(s+5)/s(s+1)

Time response for different values of k:

Ex Figure: step response for different values of k(=0.04,0.2,17.94,50)

On adding the pole following things were observed:

(i) The root locus moves towards the left.
(ii) The range of k for which system is system is stable increases
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INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,

DESIGN & MANUFACTURING, JABALPUR (M.P.)

Procedure:
1. Open scilab and create scinotes.
2. Define transfer function.
3. Using ‘evans()’ function plot root locus
4. Using datatip find the range of k for which system is stable
5. Verify the value of k using routh array, use function routh_t() to create routh array.
6. Also verify the value of break-in and break away point manually.
a. Write the characteristic equation
1+G ( s ) H ( s )=0
b. Now write k in terms of s
dk
c. =0 , find the roots
ds
d. Put the value of roots in the characteristic equation, roots for which k is positive are the
break points

Data for experiment:

k
1. G ( s ) H ( s )=
( s+ 4)(s+ 20)
k
2. G ( s ) H ( s )= ; a pole is added at origin
s ( s +4 ) ( s+20)
k (s+ 10)
3. G ( s ) H ( s )= ; a zero is added at the origin
( s+ 4)(s+ 20)

Results:
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INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,

DESIGN & MANUFACTURING, JABALPUR (M.P.)