School of Engineering

ES3E8 Precision Control Practice Sheet 8

Question 1

An easy one to start, as always…

Write out a necessary and sufficient condition for a closed-loop system to be stable.

(Clue: based on the locations of poles.)

Question 2

𝜃𝑚 (𝑠)
Find the closed-loop gain (i.e., , the transfer function of the whole closed-loop
𝑅(𝑠)
system) for the system below.

Then Indicate the type of damping applied based on the different values of a and b.

(1) a = 10, b = 25;

(2) a = 5, b = 25;

(3) a = 0, b = 25;

(4) a = 20, b = 25;

𝐶(𝑠)
Find the equivalent transfer function, 𝑇(𝑠) = 𝑅(𝑠), for the system shown in the figure
below.

2/8
Question 4

A system has a given closed-loop transfer function,

𝑁(𝑠)
𝑃(𝑠) =
𝑠4 + 5𝑠 3 + 7𝑠 2 + 2𝑠 + 10

Determine whether the system is stable, or not. If the system is unstable, determine the
number of poles in the right half-plane.

(Clue: Employing the Routh-Hurwitz Criterion)

3/8
 Answers
Question 1

An easy one to start, as always…

Write out a necessary and sufficient condition for a closed-loop system to be stable.

(Clue: based on the locations of poles.)

Answer: All the poles of the closed-loop system have negative real parts, or all the poles
are strictly in the left-half of the s-plane.

Question 2

𝜃𝑚 (𝑠)
Find the closed-loop gain (i.e., , the transfer function of the whole closed-loop
𝑅(𝑠)
system) for the system below.

Answer: The closed-loop gain of the system is

𝜃𝑚 (𝑠) 𝑏
= 2
𝑅(𝑠) 𝑠 + 𝑎𝑠 + 𝑏

Then Indicate the type of damping applied based on the different values of a and b.

(1) a = 10, b = 25; 𝜔𝑛 = 5, 𝜁 = 1, critically damped

(2) a = 5, b = 25; 𝜔𝑛 = 5, 𝜁 = 0.5, under-damped

(3) a = 0, b = 25; 𝜔𝑛 = 5, 𝜁 = 0, un-damped

(4) a = 20, b = 25; 𝜔𝑛 = 5, 𝜁 = 2, over-damped

4/8
Question 3

𝐶(𝑠)
Find the equivalent transfer function, 𝑇(𝑠) = 𝑅(𝑠), for the system shown in the figure
below.

Answer: There are many ways to handle this problem. One example is given below.

Combining the cascaded & parallel blocks in the forward path:

Then, push (1/s) to the left past the takeoff point:

5/8
Further simplification:

After that, applying the feedback formula, simplifying, and getting:

Question 4

A system has a given closed-loop transfer function,

𝑁(𝑠)
𝑃(𝑠) =
𝑠4 + 5𝑠 3 + 7𝑠 2 + 2𝑠 + 10

Determine whether the system is stable, or not. If the system is unstable, determine the
number of poles in the right half-plane.

(Clue: Employing the Routh-Hurwitz Criterion)

Answer:

For a system,

The key steps of building a Routh Table are as follows.

I. Initialising

(1) Labelling the rows of the table with the powers of s from the highest power of the
denominator to s0.

(2) Filling the first two rows of the table. For the first row, starting with the coefficient of
the highest power of s in the denominator and list, horizontally in the first row, every
6/8
other coefficient. For the second row, starting with the next highest power of s, and list,
horizontally every other coefficient.

II. Completing the Routh table

Each 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. The 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 complete when
all of the rows are completed down to s0.

For this example, 𝑎4 = 1, 𝑎3 = 5, 𝑎2 = 7, 𝑎1 = 2, 𝑎0 = 10.

Based on that, we can get the following completed Routh table.

7/8
III. Interpreting

There are two changes in polarity (33/5 -> -184/33; -184/33 -> 10) in the first column, so
the system is UNSTABLE and there are TWO POLES in the RIGHT HALF-PLANE.

8/8