Frequency domain conditions for the robust stability of linear and nonlinear dynamical systems

Abstract

The authors establish a generalized frequency-domain criterion for checking families of polynomials for root confinement in open subsets of the complex plane. The authors show how this criterion reduces to checking certain curves in the complex plane for zero confinement. Moreover, in some special cases, it further reduces to some complex functions with pointwise phase differences that are always less than pi in magnitude. Most of the currently available results on the robust stability of linear systems with parametric uncertainties can be viewed within the unifying frequency-domain framework presented. The framework encapsulates not just finite-dimensional systems, but any linear-time-invariant (LTI) system that can be characterized by transfer functions of a single variable. It also covers robust stability of LTI systems under passive feedback. >