Routh- Hurwitz Criterion

1. Stable System: If all the roots of the characteristic equation lie on the left half of
the 'S' plane then the system is said to be a stable system.
2. Marginally Stable System: If all the roots of the system lie on the imaginary axis
of the 'S' plane then the system is said to be marginally stable.
3. Unstable System: If all the roots of the system lie on the right half of the 'S'
plane then the system is said to be an unstable system.

Statement of Routh-Hurwitz Criterion

Routh Hurwitz criterion states that any system can be stable if and only if all the roots of the first
column have the same sign and if it does not has the same sign or there is a sign change then
the number of sign changes in the first column is equal to the number of roots of the
characteristic equation in the right half of the s-plane i.e. equals to the number of roots with
positive real parts.

Necessary but not sufficient conditions for

Stability
We have to follow some conditions to make any system stable, or we can say that there
are some necessary conditions to make the system stable.

Consider a system with characteristic equation:

1. All the coefficients

of the equation should have the same sign.
2. There should be no missing term.

If all the coefficients have the same sign and there are no missing terms, we have no
guarantee that the system will be stable. For this, we use Routh Hurwitz Criterion to
check the stability of the system. If the above-given conditions are not satisfied, then the
system is said to be unstable. This criterion is given by A. Hurwitz and E.J. Routh.
Advantages of Routh- Hurwitz Criterion
1. We can find the stability of the system without solving the equation.
2. We can easily determine the relative stability of the system.
3. By this method, we can determine the range of K for stability.
4. By this method, we can also determine the point of intersection for root locus with an
imaginary axis.

Limitations of Routh- Hurwitz Criterion

1. This criterion is applicable only for a linear system.
2. It does not provide the exact location of poles on the right and left half of the S plane.
3. In case of the characteristic equation, it is valid only for real coefficients.