Stability Analysis On the Nichols Chart and Its

Application in QFT
Wenhua Chen and Donald J. Ballance
Centre for Systems & Control
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ
UK
August, 1997
Abstract

A new stability criterion on Nichols chart is presented. It provides

an alternative graphical method for stability analysis on Nichols chart.
Furthermore this result can be used to test the stability of the new nominal closed-loop system arising in QFT controller design method for nonminimum phase and unstable plants, which is dicult to test with the
existing stability criterion.

keywords: Stability analysis, Quantitative Feedback Theory, stability criterion, Nichols chart

1 Introduction
In QFT and other frequency domain design methods, the robust stability is
guaranteed by ensuring that the nominal case is stable and the following equality
holds 1 + L(j!) 6= 0 for any allowable uncertainties, where L(j!) is open-loop
transmissions, or open-loop plants. This is so-called Zero Exclusion Theorem.
In QFT the later is achieved by imposing the robust stability margin condition,
for instance, the high-frequency U courtor. It is therefore essential to guarantee
the stability of the nominal case in the QFT design procedure and if the nominal
case is stable and the robust margin condition is satised, the robust stability
follows. Since the loop shaping is performed on the Nichols chart and a graphic
CAD environment for QFT controller design was developed as a commercial
QFT Toolbox in MATLAB [2], it is very interesting to obtain the graphical
stability criterion. In addition, to develop a new stability criterion has itself
meaning. The well-known graphical stability criterion is the celebrated Nyquist
stability criterion (for example, see [9]). This criterion was extended to the
Nichols chart for QFT design recently [7].
When designing QFT controller for non-minimum phase and unstable plants
with Horowitz and Sidi method [6, 4], Chen and Ballance [3] show not only the
robust bounds but also the stability line R must be shifted with frequency.
n

Rn
db
Y

r
60
+

40
20

Rc
-1

-360

-180

-20
-40
-60

Figure 1: Denitions of positive and negative crossing

When the stability line R moves with frequency in QFT design, it is dicult
to use the existing stability criterion directly. That is, it is dic Lemma [7]: For
the Nichols and Nyquist plot with the positive and negative crossing denitions
in Fig. 1, the followings are equivalent:
1. The feedback system is stable.
2. The one-sheeted full Nichols plot of L(s) does not intersect the point
(?180; 0db), and the net sum of its crossings of the ray R := f(; r0 ) :
 = ?180, r0 > 0dbg is equal to n.
3. The multiple sheeted full Nichols plot of L(s) does not intersect any of
the points (2k + 1)q,k = 0; 1; 2;


, and the net sum of its crossings of
the rays R + 2kq is equal to n.
ult to test whether or not the plot L (s) intersects the stability line graphically
in the loop shaping procedure. It is interesting to develop a new graphical
stability criterion.
In this paper the plot in Nichols chart and the plot in Nyquist chart of L(j!)
for ! 2 (?1; +1) are called the full Nichols plot and the full Nyquist plot of
L(j!) or of the transfer function L(s), respectively. The half parts of the full
Nichols plot and the full Nyquist plot of L(s) are called the half Nichols plot
and the half Nyquist plot of L(s) respectively, and, for simplicity, called the
Nichols plot and the Nyquist plot of L(s) or L(j!) in this paper. Moreover the
steady gain of a plant L(s) with n integrals is dened as
k = lim
L(s)s
!0
n

2 Stability Criterion
In general the magnitude of the transfer function decreases with frequency and
it only increases in a narrow frequency range. In This paper, it is assumed the
plot L(s) only intersect the 0db line for at most one time.
A stable plant is considered rst, and then a plant which has one unstable
pole. Finally, we show the stability analysis of an open-loop plant with multiple
unstable poles can be converted to that of a plant with one unstable pole or a
stable plant.
2.1

Stable plants

First consider the stable plant with positive steady gain k . The discuss is
based on Figure 2. The Nichols plot of L(s) starts either from the point A
o

R D

H R

80DB
A

40DB

0DB

E
-180

C
0

F
180

B
-40DB

Figure 2: The Nichols Plot for Stable Plant

above the 0db line or the point B below the 0db line both on the 0 degree
vertical line whether or not the open loop plant has integrals. When a plant
has n integrals, we must add the line from 0 to n  90 in Nichols chart as in
the Nyquist plot. When the plot L(j!) starts from the point A, it, denitely,
must go out the region which is dened by the boundaries DE EF and FH .
So the total number for the Nichols plot of L(s) crosses the bounds DF , EF
and FH is odd. If the plot L(s) crosses EF for one time then it crosses DE
and FH for even times. Moreover the numbers for the positive crossing and
the negative crossing as dened in Lemma 1 are equal due to the monotone
property of the gain jL(s)j. According to Lemma 1, the closed-loop system is
stable. If the plot does not intersect the line segment EF , i.e., the line segment
C := f(; r) : r = 0db; ?180 <  < 180g, it intersects the line DE and FH
for odd times. Remember the lines DE and FH responding to the stability line
R in Lemma 1. So whether or not the net number for crossings is positive or
negative, the closed-loop system is unstable since it is impossible that the net
crossing is zero.
When the plot starts from the point B , that is, the steady gain jk j is less
than 0db, the plot will not cross with the stability line R so the system is
always stable.
For the stable plant with the negative steady gain k , similar to the discuss
in the above, it is easy to show it is always stable when the steady gain jk j
is less than 0db and the system is always unstable when the steady gain jk j is
equal or larger than 0db. So we have the rst result about stability in term of
the 0db line.
Proposition 1 : For the stable plant L(s) whose Nichols plot intersects 0db
line at least one time, the feedback system is stable if and only if one of the
followings holds
1. the steady gain jk j is less than 0db,
2. the Nichols plot L(j!) intersects the line segment C := f(; r) : r =
0db; ?180 <  < 180g for the plant with the positive steady gain k and
jk j larger than 0db.
n

2.2

plants with one unstable pole

Next we consider the plant with only one unstable pole. If the steady gain jk j
is less than 0db, then it is impossible to intersect the stability line R in Lemma
1 and instability follows. If the steady gain k is positive and jk j is larger
than 0db, due to the symmetry of the full Nichols plot of L(s), the full Nichols
o

R D

H R

A
80DB

40DB

0DB

E
-180

C
0

F
180

B
-40DB

Figure 3: Nyquist Plots for Plants with one Unstable pole

plot of L(s) crosses the stability line for even times (including zero). Hence the
feedback system is unstable.
When the steady gain k is negative and jk j is larger than 0db, there are
two cases. One is the crossing at ! = 0 is positive. Then the feedback systems
is stable if and only the net number of other crossings is zero. It implies the
feedback system is stable if and only if the Nichols plot will intersect the 0db line
within the phase range (?180; 180) as the plot 1 in Fig. 3 . The other is the
crossing in ! = 0 is negative. The starting point of the plot in ! = 0+ has the
phase less than ?180 as the plots 2 and 3 in Fig. 3. Then the feedback system
is stable if and only if the net number of the positive and negative crossings of
the full Nichols plot are 2 since the plant has one unstable pole and there is
one negative crossing in ! = 0. Due to the symmetry, the net number of the
half part of the full Nichols plot, ie., Nichols plot, is 1. It implies the Nichols
plot of L(s) will return to the region combined by the line segments DE , EF
and FH , and the Nichols plot must also intersect the 0db line within the phase
range (?180; 180). Hence whether it is positive crossing or negative crossing
at ! = 0, the feedback system is stable if and only if it crosses the line segment
C . The result for the plant with one unstable pole is summarised as follows.
Proposition 2 : For the plant L(s) with one unstable pole, the feedback
system is stable if and only if the half part of the Nichols plot crosses the line
segment C := f(; r) : r = 0db; ?180 <  < 180g, the steady gain k is
negative and jk j is larger than 0db.
o

2.3

Plants with several unstable poles

The stability criterion for the plant with several unstable poles are now considered. If the number of the unstable poles is even, then it can written as
2k where k is a positive integral k = 1; 2;


:. In this case, the feedback system is stable if and only if the net number of positive crossings and negative
crossings of the full Nyquist plot is 2k times, ie., the number of the positive
and negative crossings of the Nichols plot of L(s) is k. The net number of
the positive crossings more than negative crossings for one time implies the
phase will adding -360. In the Nichols chart we should add a sheet. So
the stability of the closed-loop system can be analysed within the phase range
(?k  360 ? 180; ?k  360 + 180). By shifting the Nichols plot of L(s) right
on the multiple sheeted Nichols chart for k times, it can be shown the stability
of the feedback system can be analysed by investigating the properties of the
shifted Nichols plot within the phase range (?180; +180), ie., on one sheeted
Nichols chart. It is reduced to a stability analysis of the plant with no unstable
4

40
0 db
30

0.25 db
0.5 db

OpenLoop Gain (db)

20

1 db

1 db

3 db

10

3 db

6 db

6 db

10

12 db

20

20 db

30

40
360

270

180
OpenLoop Phase (deg)

90

40 db
0

Figure 4: Nichols Plot of Example 1

pole but with mirror modication.
Proposition 3 : Consider the plant with 2k unstable poles,k = 1; 2;


, and
shift the Nichols plot of L(s) right on multiple sheeted Nichols chart for k sheets.
The feedback system is stable if and only if the plot intersects the line segment
C := f(; r) : r = 0db; ?180 <  < 180g, the steady gain k is positive and
jk j is larger than 0db.
Proposition 3 implies the stability analysis of the plant with 2k unstable
poles can be transfered to that of the stable plant by shifting the Nichols plot.
It should be noticed that the Nichols plot might not start within the region
combined by the lines DE; EF; FH when the steady gain jk j is above the 0db
line. So Proposition 3 is mirrorly modied from Proposition 1. For the plant
with odd, ie, 2k + 1, k = 1; 2;


, unstable poles, similar to the discussion in the
above, the stability analysis becomes that of the plant with one unstable after
shifting the Nichols plot for k sheets. The result in Proposition 2 is employed
directly.
Proposition 4 : For the plant L(s) with 2k + 1 unstable poles, k = 1; 2;


,
after shifting the Nichols plot right on multiple sheeted Nichols chart for k times,
the stability analysis of the plant with 2k + 1 unstable poles is equivalent to
that of the shifting Nichols plot of the plant with one unstable pole on single
sheeted Nichols chart.
o

3 Examples
To compare with the stability criterion in [7], the graphical stability criterion
developed in this section is applied in analysis of stability of all examples in [7].
Example 1 : The stable minimum phase plant is given by

L(s) = s +k 1

The Nichols plot is shown in Fig. 4 with k = 2. Because it crosses the 0db line
within the range(?180; 180) and the open-loop plant is stable, it follows from
the Proposition 1 that the feedback system is stable. It can also be shown that
the open-loop steady gain jk j is larger than 0db and the Nichols plot crosses
the 0db line within the range (?180; 180) for any k > 1. When k  1, the
open loop steady gain jk j is equal to or less than 0db. Hence following the
Proposition 1, the closed-loop system is also stable for all k > 0.
o

40
0 db
30

0.25 db
0.5 db

OpenLoop Gain (db)

20

1 db

1 db

3 db

10

3 db

6 db

6 db

10

12 db

20

20 db

30

40
360

270

180
OpenLoop Phase (deg)

90

40 db
0

Figure 5: Nichols Plot of Example 2

40
0 db
30

0.25 db
0.5 db

OpenLoop Gain (db)

20

1 db

1 db

3 db

10

3 db

6 db

6 db

10

12 db

20

20 db

30

40
360

270

180
OpenLoop Phase (deg)

90

40 db
0

Figure 6: Nichols Plot of Example 3

Example 2 : The plant is the same as the plant in Example 1 but the gain is
negative. The Nichols plot for the plant with k = ?2 is depicted in Fig. 5. Since
the Nichols plot intersects the the 0db line out with the range (?180; 180) and
the gain is negative, the closed loop system is unstable for k = ?2 by using
Proposition 1. From the Fig. 5, we can nd the Nichols plot crosses the 0db line
less than or equal to ?180 for any k  ?1 and the steady gain jk j is less than
0db, and when ?1 < k < 0, the Nichols plot doesn't cross the 0db line. Hence
from Proposition 1, the closed-loop system is unstable for k  ?1 and stable
for ?1 < k < 0.
Example 3. This example has three stable poles
o

L(s) = (s + 1)(s +k 5)(s + 10)

(1)

The Nichols plot for the plant with the gain k = 3000 is shown in Fig. 6. Since
the open-loop system is stable, Proposition 1 is applicable and we can conclude
the closed-loop system is unstable since the Nichols plot intersects the 0db line
less than ?180.
Example 4. Consider the following fth order plant
s + 50)2(s + 100)
(2)
L(s) = (s + 1)(s +k(2)(
s + 5)(s + 200)(s + 500)
The plot on a Nichols chart is given Fig. 7 for k = 1. From Proposition 1, it
is easy to determine that the closed-loop system is stable. Similar to [7], we also
can determine the stability range of the parameter k by Proposition 1. However
6

40
0.25 db
0.5 db
1 db
3 db
6 db

20

1 db

20

3 db
6 db
12 db
20 db

40

40 db

60

60 db

80

80 db

100

100 db

120

120 db

OpenLoop Gain (db)

0 db

140
160
360

140 db

270

180
OpenLoop Phase (deg)

90

160 db
0

Figure 7: Nichols Plot of Example 4

40
0 db
0.25 db
0.5 db
1 db

20

1 db

OpenLoop Gain (db)

3 db
6 db

3 db
6 db

12 db
20

20 db

40

40 db

60

60 db

80
360

270

180
OpenLoop Phase (deg)

90

80 db
0

Figure 8: Nichols Plot of Example 5

we don't need to count the numbers of the negative and positive crossings as in
[7] since there is at most one time crossing of the 0db line for this plant.
Example 5. Now we examine a plant with integrals. A stable type 1 system

L(s) = s(s + 1)(k s + 10)

(3)

is considered.
Since the plant has a positive gain and has a integral, the line from 0 to
?90 is added and we draw the plot from ?90 as ! = 0+. The plot for the
plant with k = 1 is shown in Fig. 8. According to the sucient and necessary
condition for in Proposition 1, we conclude the closed-loop system is stable for
k = 1. By increasing the steady gain k, the plot will move up. When k > 100,
the plot crosses the 0db less than -180, So the closed loop system becomes
unstable when k  100.
Example 6. Consider a type 1 unstable system

L(s) = s(s k? 1)

(4)

The gain for plotting is k = 1. Because the plant has the negative gain, the
Nichols plot starts from ?180. The Nichols plot is given in Fig. 9. This is a
stability analysis problem for the plant with one unstable pole and the negative
gain, so Proposition 2 should be used. Because the plot intersects the 0db line for
the phase less ?180, the feedback system is unstable according to the sucient
and necessary condition in Proposition 2. Moreover it is impossible to increase
7

40
0 db
30

0.25 db
0.5 db

OpenLoop Gain (db)

20

1 db

1 db

3 db

10

3 db

6 db

6 db

10

12 db

20

20 db

30

40
360

270

180
OpenLoop Phase (deg)

90

40 db
0

Figure 9: Nichols Plot of Example 6

40
0 db
30

0.25 db
0.5 db

OpenLoop Gain (db)

20

1 db

1 db

3 db

10

3 db

6 db

6 db

10

12 db

20

20 db

30

40
360

270

180
OpenLoop Phase (deg)

90

40 db
0

Figure 10: Nichols Plot of Example 7

or decrease the gain such the plot crosses the 0db line within (?180; 180). The
the closed-loop system is unstable for all k > 0.
Example 7. In this example a non-minimum phase plant is concerned. The
plant is given by
s)
(5)
L(s) = ks((1s +? 1)

The Nyquist plot is drawn on a Nichols chart for the gain k = 1 as shown
in Fig. 10. Since the gain for this plant is positive and the open-loop plant is
stable, the stability of the closed loop system is analysed by Proposition 1. The
closed-loop system is unstable since the plot intersects the 0db line at ?180.
Obviously the stability requirement is satised if the plot is lowered. So the
closed-loop system is stable if and only if 0 < k < 1.
All examples in [7] are tested in the above by the stability criterion developed in this paper. The same conclusions are obtained and our criterion is
more simple and more clear since only whether the plot crosses the 0db line is
concerned and we don't need to determine the sign of every crossing is positive
or negative and count the numbers of the positive and negative crossings.
Example 8 : The stable plant with the occision component

k
L(s) = (s2 =2500 + s=250
+ 1)(s + 1)

(6)

is considered. The Nichols plot for the plant with k = 2 is shown in Fig. 11.
The Nichols plot does not monotonically decrease with the frequency !. But
the Propositions given in the above section also hold for this plant since the plot
8

40
0.25 db
0.5 db
1 db
3 db
6 db

20

1 db

20

3 db
6 db
12 db
20 db

40

40 db

60

60 db

80

80 db

100

100 db

120

120 db

OpenLoop Gain (db)

0 db

140

140 db

160
360

270

180
OpenLoop Phase (deg)

90

160 db
0

Figure 11: The Nichols Plot for Stable Plant

only intersects the 0db line one time. Since the Nichols plot intersects the 0db
line within the range (-180; 180) and the open plant is stable, following from
Proposition 1, this closed-loop system is stable.
Hence the result in this section provides an alternative method for graphical
stability test in QFT design. Moreover the advantage of this method in QFT
design for non-minimum phase and unstable plants is shown in the next section.

4 Application in QFT Design

Horowitz and Sidi [6, 4] develop a method for QFT controller design for uncertain non-minimum phase and unstable plants. The key idea is to convert
the loop-shaping problem for an unstable and/or nonminimum phase nominal
plant to that for a stable nonminimum phase nominal plant. The reason is in
numerical design it is more convenient to work with a minimum phase function
because the Bode integrals [1] can be used and the optimal loop shaping can
be derived [5, 6]. In addition, although the same limitations imposed by right
plane zeros and poles exist whatever choice is made and appear in one form or
another, this method explicitly reveals the limitations on L(j!) and makes it
much easier to see if the assigned specications can be satised. The method
suggested by Horowitz and Sidi [6, 4] is to shift the robust bounds for the unstable non-minimum phase nominal plant to that for the stable and minimum
phase nominal plant. This method is now recognised as an eective method to
deal with non-minimum phase and unstable plants within QFT formulation (for
example see [10, 8]). Recently Chen and Ballance [3] point out that not only
the robust bounds but also the stability line for the new nominal plant must be
shifted. That is, the stability line R moves with the frequency !. Similarly, it
can be shown that the phase range (?180; 180) on the 0db line for testing the
stability should also be moved left or right.
More specically, when P (s) = P 0 (s)A(s), the phase range (?180? arg(A(j!)); 180arg(A(j!))) of P 0 (s) at frequency ! corresponds to the phase range (?180; 180)
for P (s). Next a simple example is illustrated to show how to apply the new
stability criterion in QFT design for non-minimum phase and unstable plants.
It is shown that it is much easier to test the stability of the nominal closed-loop
system graphically with the stability criterion developed in this paper than with
the stability criterion in [7].
n

Openloop:
Closedloop:
Frequency:

384.97deg,45.41dB
0.13deg,0.04dB
n/a rad/sec

50
40
30

50

10 6

0.30.1

20
10
0

10
20
30
350

300

250
200
150
100
X: Phase (degrees) Y: Magnitude (dB)

50

Figure 12: Shifting Bounds and Phase Range of Stability

Example 9 : Consider a simple second order unstable plant
P (s) = sk(s(s?+2a:5))
where the uncertain parameters k and a are within the same ranges in

k 2 [1; 10]; a 2 [0:1; 1]

(7)
(8)

For simplicity, only the robust stability is considered and robust performance is
not considered. The robust stability can be imposed by


 L(s) 


(9)

1 + L(s)   2:1 for all a 2 [0:1; 1]; k 2 [1; 10];
The plant under the parameters k = 1 and a = 1 is chosen as the nominal case.
(10)
P (s) = s((ss ?+ 21):5)
o

This plant has one unstable pole. According to Horowitz and Sidi method[6, 4,
3], choose
P 0 (s) = s((ss ++ 21):5)
(11)
o

as the new stable minimum phase nominal plant. The shifting bounds and the
stability lines at the frequencies ! = 0:1, 0.3, 1, 2, 3, 6, 10, 50 are plotted in
Fig. 12. A controller
G(s) = 6:582:
(12)
is designed by loop shaping [3]. As shown in Fig. 12, it is possible for the
Nyquist plot to intersect the stability line within the frequency band ! 2 [1; 2].
Since, similar to the most of the Nichols plots, the phase doesn't monotonely
vary with frequency ! in this band, it is dicult to determine whether the loop
transmission L(s) under the controller intersects the shifted stability lines R(!)
and the numbers of the positive and negative crossings is also dicult to be
counted. So it is dicult to analyse the stability of the nominal closed-loop
system under the controller G(s) (12) by the stability criterion [7]. This is also
our motivation to develop the new stability criterion.
i

10

Now the stability criterion proposed in the above section is used to analyse
the stability of the nominal closed-loop system in Fig. 12. Since this nominal
plant P (s) with one unstable pole and the gain is negative, according to Proposition 2, the closed-loop system is stable if and only if the plot should intersect
the 0db line within the phase (?180; 180). When the robust bounds of the
nominal plant P (s) are shifted to that of the nominal plant P 0 (s), the phase
range also shifts from (?180; 180) to (?180? arg(A(j!)),180?argA(j!)))
as shown in Fig. 12. It is easy to show the plot crosses the 0db line near frequency ! = 6 with the phase about ?75. The phase range for stability becomes
(?140; 220) at frequency ! = 6. Clearly it is within this phase range. Following the necessary and sucient condition for stability in Proposition 2, the
nominal closed-loop system under the controller is stable. In other words, with
the new stability criterion in hand, it is very easy to know how to shape the
loop transmission L(s) such that the nominal stability of the nominal closedloop system is guaranteed when the QFT design is performed in the graphical
CAD environment. This is the main advantage of the graphical stability criterion. For example, the nominal closed-loop system is always stable when the
controller gain is increased in this example. The nominal closed-loop system is
also stable until decreasing the control gain such that the plot crosses the 0db
line at frequency 2,
o

5 Conclusion
In QFT, when Horowitz and Sidi[6, 4] method is employed to design robust
controllers for non-minimum phase and unstable plants, Chen and Ballance [3]
point out that the stability of the new nominal plant must be reformulated.
That is the stability line varies with frequency. It is dicult to analyse the
stability of the closed-loop nominal systems by the existing stability criterion.
A new graphical stability criterion on Nichols chart was proposed, which is
based on the phase information when the plot gain is 0db. As shown in the
last example, this criterion provides an eective method for stability analysis of
the new nominal systems. It utilises the gain property of the transfer function.
Moreover although this criterion is applicable for the plot crossing the 0db
line at most one time, as we shown in this paper, it is an eective alternative
method for stability analysis of most of physical systems since most of plants
have monotone property of the gain.

References
[1] H. W. Bode. Network Analysis and Feedback Amplier Design. van Nostrand, New York, 1945.
[2] C. Borghesani, Y. Chait, and O. Yaniv. Quantitative Feedback Theory
Toolbox User Manual. The Math Work Inc., 1995.
[3] Wenhua Chen and Donald J. Ballance. QFT design for uncertain nonminimum phase and unstable plants. In Proceedings of the 1998 American
Control Conference, Philadelphia, U.S.A., 1998.
11

[4] I. M. Horowitz. Quantitative Feedback Design Theory (QFT), volume 1.

QFT Publications, 4470 Grinnel Ave., Boulder, Colorado 80303, USA,
1992.
[5] I. M. Horowitz and M. Sidi. Synthesis of feedback systems with large plant
ignorance for prescribed time-domain tolerances. Int. J. Control, 16:287{
309, 1972.
[6] I. M. Horowitz and M. Sidi. Optimum synthesis of non-minimum phase
feedback system with plant uncertainty. Int. J. Control, 27:361{386, 1978.
[7] N.Cohen, Y.Chait, O.Yaniv, and C.Borghesani. Stability analysis using
nichols charts. In Constantine N. Houpis and Phillip R. Chandler, editors,
Proceedings of the Symposium on Quantitative Feedback Theory, pages 80{
103, Dayton, Ohio, U.S.A., 1992.
[8] R.E. Nordgren, O.D.I. Nwokah, and M.A. Franchek. New formulations for
quantitative feedback theory. International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control, 4:47{64, 1994.
[9] M. Vidyasagar, R.K. Bertschmann, and C.S. Sallaberger. Some simplications of the graphical nyquist criterion. IEEE Trans. Automatic Control,
33(3):301{205, 1988.
[10] O. Yaniv and I. M. Horowitz. Quantitative feedback theory|reply to criticisms. Int. J. Control, 46(3):945{962, 1987.

12