Ch8.

Root Locus Techniques

Root Locus Techniques 1

 Learning Objectives
• Define a root locus (Sections 8.1–8.2)
• State the properties of a root locus (Section 8.3)
• Sketch a root locus (Section 8.4)
• Find the coordinates of points on the root locus
and their associated gains (Sections 8.5–8.6)
• Sketch the root locus for positive-feedback
systems (Section 8.9)

Root Locus Techniques 2

 What is Root Locus?
• Root locus is a graphical presentation of the
closed-loop poles as a system parameter is
changed.
• It’s a powerful tool of analysis and design for
stability and transient response, especially for
systems with order higher than two.
• The root locus can be used to describe
qualitatively the performance of a system as
various parameters are changed.

Root Locus Techniques 3

 What is Root Locus? (cont.)
• Consider the closed-loop system below:

The pole locations of

the equivalent closed-
loop transfer function
depend on the gain K.

• Root locus allows us to determine the movement of these poles as

K is varied.
Root Locus Techniques 4
Vector Representation of Complex Numbers
• We will need to represent complex numbers and complex
function F(s) as vectors. Typically, complex function F(s) we
are concerned with has the following form:
Number of zeros

Number of poles

• Suppose is a complex number and is real. can be

represented in polar form with Magnitude Ms and angle as
• is another complex number and can be drawn from –a to s.
• These facts are illustrated in the next slide.

Root Locus Techniques 5

Vector Representation of Complex Numbers
drawn from 0 to s+a.
complex complex
number s number s+a

Identical!
complex
number s+a Example:
S=5+j2, a=7

drawn from –a to s.

Root Locus Techniques 6

Vector Representation of Complex Functions
¿𝑀∠𝜃, where

is the magnitude of the vector drawn from the zero of F(s) at –zi
to the point s.
is the magnitude of the vector drawn from the pole of F(s) at –pj
to the point s.
is the angle measured from the positive real axis, of the
vector drawn from the zero of F(s) at –zi to the point s.
is the angle measured from the positive real axis, of the
vector drawn from the pole of F(s) at –pj to the point s.
Root Locus Techniques 7
Vector Representation of Complex Functions
Evaluate the following complex function when

Solution:
The vector originating at the zero at -1:
√ 20 ∠116.6 0
The vector originating at the pole at -2:
√ 17 ∠1 04 0

The vector originating at the pole at origin:

0
5 ∠1 26.9

Note that this can also be done in Matlab!

Root Locus Techniques 8
 Defining the Root Locus
• Let us consider the following position tracking system:

The open-loop
transfer function is:
𝐾1 𝐾 2
The closed-loop poles,
𝑠 ( 𝑠+10)
however, depend on
We can easily figure the gain K.
out the two open-
loop poles: s=0 and
s=-10 Root Locus is the representation of the
paths of the closed-loop poles as the gain is
varied.
Root Locus Techniques 9
 Defining the Root Locus (cont.)
We factor the denominator of the closed-loop
transfer function under different K and obtain:

Root Locus Techniques 10

Defining the Root Locus (cont.)
The root locus shows how
the positions of the poles
change on the s-plane when
the gain K varies.
Observations:
1. : overdamped
: critically damped
: underdamped

is also constant
4. No closed-loop poles on
the right half plane.
Therefore, the system is
stable
5. Higher the gain, higher
Root Locus Techniques
the % overshoot. 11
 Properties of the Root Locus
• In the previous example, we came up with the root locus by
factoring the denominator of the closed-loop transfer function
under various gain. This, however, is a tedious job, especially for
higher-order systems.
• We now explore the properties of the root locus, using which we
will be able to make a rapid sketch of the root locus for higher-
order systems without having to factor the denominator of the
closed-loop transfer function.
• We first write down the general form of a closed-loop transfer
function:

• We will have a pole when KG(s)H(s)=-1, i.e.,

Root Locus Techniques 12

 Properties of the Root Locus (cont.)
• The condition from the last slide can be translated to:
Magnitude is unity

Angle is odd multiples of 1800

• Example: let us test if two points are closed-loop poles in the
system below:

Open-loop poles and zeros

Root Locus Techniques 13
 Properties of the Root Locus (cont.)
The open-loop transfer function of the system in the example is:

Test point #1: s1=-2+3j

We need to verify if the angle of KG(s)H(s)
is multiples of 1800:

It turns out:

Therefore, s=-2+3j is not a closed-loop

system pole.

Root Locus Techniques 14

 Properties of the Root Locus (cont.)
The open-loop transfer function of the system in the example is:

Test point #2:

If we repeat the procedure above for Test point #1, we will find out
that:

i.e., s2 is on the root locus. We now calculate the gain K:

Of open-loop
transfer
function
The length from
the pole/zero to
s
Root Locus Techniques 15
 Sketching the Root Locus
• Accurately plotting the entire root locus requires the aid of a
computer and quite a bit effort (e.g., sweep through every
points on the s-plane)
• People often would like to sketch the root locus and then
accurately plot just those points that are of interest to us.
• In order to sketch the root locus, some insights of the root
locus need to be identified. In particular, we have the
following five rules:
• Rule #1 Number of Branches:
Consider a branch to be the path that one closed-loop pole
traverses.
There will be one branch for every closed-loop pole, e.g. two
branches for the previous quadratic example.

Root Locus Techniques 16

 Sketching the Root Locus (cont.)
• Rule #2 Symmetry:
The poles for real physical systems either lie on the real-axis
or come in conjugate pairs. Therefore,
The root locus is symmetrical about the real axis.
• Rule #3 Real-axis segments:
The open-loop poles and zeros are plotted below. P1-P4 are
test points. The sum of the two
complex pole angles is
3600 or 00 !
The same thing applies to
the two complex zero
angles!
Rule 3.1: At each point the angular contribution of a pair of open-
loop complex poles or zeros is zero.
Root Locus Techniques 17
 Sketching the Root Locus (cont.)
• Rule #3 Real-axis segments (cont.):

1800 contribution! 00contribution!

Rule 3.2: On the real axis, the angular contribution of any open-
loop pole or zero to its right on the real axis is 0.
Rule 3.3: On the real axis, the angular contribution of each open-
loop poles and zeros to its left on the real axis is 1800 .
Rule #3 summarized: on the real axis, for K > 0 the root locus
exists to the left of an odd number of real-axis, finite open-loop
poles and/or finite open-loop zeros.
Root Locus Techniques 18
 Sketching the Root Locus (cont.)
• Rule #3 Example:

1. no (odd) zeros or poles exist on the right.

Therefore, it’s not on the root locus.
one (odd) open-loop pole exists on the right.
Therefore, it’s on the root locus.
3. two (even) open-loop poles are on the right.
Therefore, it’s not on the root locus.
4. three (odd) open-loop poles and zeros are on the right.
Therefore, it’s on the root locus.
5. four (even) open-loop poles and zeros are on the right.
Therefore, it’s not on the root locus.
Root Locus Techniques 19
 Sketching the Root Locus (cont.)
• Rule #4 Starting and Ending Points:
Knowing the starting point (K=0) and ending point (K= of the root locus
will allow us to go beyond the real axis.
Open-loop transfer function:

Closed-loop transfer function

When K is small: When K is large:

The closed-loop poles are close The closed-loop poles are close
to the open-loop poles. to the open-loop zeros.
In summary, the root locus begins at the poles of G(s)H(s) and ends
at the zeros of G(s)H(s)! Root Locus Techniques 20
 Sketching the Root Locus (cont.)
• Rule #4 example:
Applying Rule #4 to the following open-loop transfer
function:

The root locus starts at the three poles: 0, -1, and -2

The root locus should end at the zeros, but are there any zeros?
The open-loop function does not have finite zeros, but it does
have three infinite zeros: when s approaches infinity,

approaches zero. We say KG(s)H(s) has three infinite zeros.

Similarly, a function has infinite poles if its value approaches
infinite when s approaches infinity.

Root Locus Techniques 21

 Sketching the Root Locus (cont.)
• Rule #4 Starting and Ending Points (cont.):
We now conclude: every function of has an equal number of
poles and zeros if we include the infinite poles and zeros as well
as the finite poles and zeros. We rewrite Rule #4 as follows:
The root locus begins at the finite and infinite poles of G(s)H(s)
and ends at the finite and infinite zeros of G(s)H(s)!
In the example above, the root locus starts from the three finite
poles and ends at the three infinite zeros.
Questions: How exactly does the root locus approach the
infinite zeros?
This is answered by Rule #5.

Root Locus Techniques 22

 Sketching the Root Locus (cont.)
• Rule #5 Behavior at infinity:
The root locus approaches straight lines as asymptotes as the
locus approaches infinity (it may either start from infinity poles
or end at infinite zeros). Further, the equation of asymptotes are
defined as lines with real-axis intercept, σa, and angle, θa:

where and the angle is given in radians with respect to the

positive extension of the real axis.

Note: The derivation can be found in Appendix M.1 at

www.wiley.com/college/nise.

Root Locus Techniques 23

 Sketching the Root Locus (cont.)
Rule #5 example:
Sketch the root locus of the following system:

Solution: We first apply Rules #1-#4 and obtain the following:

Root Locus Techniques 24

 Sketching the Root Locus (cont.)
Rule #5 example:

Next, we use the formula to compute the real-axis intercept and

the angles of all asymptotes:

The angles will

repeat when
different k is used.
Notice that we have one real-axis intercept but multiple angles.
There are three asymptotes—one for each infinite zero. We obtain
three unique values for θa. Root Locus Techniques 25
 Sketching the Root Locus (cont.)
Final root locus of the example above:

Root Locus Techniques 26

 Refining the Sketch
• The rules covered previous only permit us to sketch a root
locus.
• In many cases, we’d like know the details of a root locus:
– Points on the real axis where the root locus enters or
leaves the complex plane—real-axis breakaway and break-
in points
– The jw-axis crossings
– Angles of departure from complex poles
– Angles of arrival to complex zeros
• We now discuss how to accurately find these important points
on the root locus along with their associated gain.

Root Locus Techniques 27

 Refining the Sketch (cont.)
• Real-Axis Breakaway and Break-In Points
The angle is 180/n where n
We obtain the sketch of is the number of branches.
the root locus using the
five rules: Ending points of
the root locus.
The poles are the starting Gain is infinity.
points of the root locus.
Gain is 0.

Breakaway point, gain

Break-in point, gain is
reaches the maximum
at its minimum value
value on the real-axis
on the real-axis
between -2 and -1.
between 3 and 5.
Root Locus Techniques 28
 Refining the Sketch (cont.)
• Real-Axis Breakaway and Break-In Points (cont.)
on the root locus, the following must be true:

When the root locus is on the real axis, we have:

How do we find
the breakaway
and break-in
points?

Root Locus Techniques 29

 Refining the Sketch (cont.)
• Real-Axis Breakaway and Break-In Points (cont.)
One way of obtaining the breakaway and break-in points is
differentiation. Let’s demonstrate using the previous example.
We first come up with the open-loop gain using
The open-loops poles and zeros:

Let the open-loop gain be -1 and replace s with

: . Solving for K yields:

Differentiating with respect to σ and setting the derivative equal to zero

yields:

Solving for σ, we find σ=-1.45 and 3.82, which are the breakaway and
break-in points, respectively.
Root Locus Techniques 30
 Refining the Sketch (cont.)
• Crossing of the jw-axis. The importance of this is obvious: the
crossing of the jw-axis defines the boundary of stability and instability.

The gain at this point is

the maximum (or
minimum) gain that
guarantees stability.
The value of at the axis
crossing is the frequency
of oscillation.

Question: How do we
find these two values?

Root Locus Techniques 31

 Refining the Sketch (cont.)
• Crossing of the jw-axis (cont.)
Example: Find the range of gain that makes the following system
stable:

Solution: We first find the closed-loop transfer function T(s):

We next construct the Routh table:

When the root locus crosses
the jx-axis, the system is
marginally stable. When this
happens, the denominator of
T(s) is devisible by an even
polynomial, which means the
Routh table has a row of zeros.
Root Locus Techniques 32
 Refining the Sketch (cont.)
• Crossing of the jw-axis (cont.)
Solution (cont.):

Looking at the Routh table above, which row can be ROZ?

It’s obvious that only the S1 row can be zero when K>0, i.e.,

Forming the even polynomial by using the s2 row with

K=9.65, we obtain:

s is found to be which are the crossing points on the jw-

axis. The stable gain is 0<K<9.65.
Root Locus Techniques 33
 Refining the Sketch (cont.)
• Angles of departure and arrival
The root locus begins at poles and ends at zeros. The poles and zeros in general can
be complex. We want to provide the angle of departure or arrival at these poles or
zeros. Let’s assume that we are at point q on the root locus, very close to a pole or
zero.
Question: how can we find the angles, say, , when q’s precise location is unknown?

Answer: Since q is very close to the pole/zero, use the pole/zero’s position to
calculate the angles. q

The angle criterion must be satisfied!

Root Locus Techniques 34

 Refining the Sketch (cont.)
• Angles of departure and arrival (cont.)
Example: Given the unity feedback system below, find the angle of departure from
the complex poles and sketch the root locus.

Solution: Consider a point q near the upper pole,

we have:

Solving the above equation, we get:

=108.40

Root Locus Techniques 35

 Refining the Sketch (cont.)
• Plotting and Calibrating the Root Locus
Once we sketch the root locus, we may want to accurately locate
points on it and also find the corresponding gain value at that point.
In the example below, we would like to have damping ratio (which
corresponds to some % overshoot).
We keep calibrating on
the line until the sum
of angles is an odd
multiples of 180
degrees.
We now calculate the
gain:

See here for an interactive demo on plotting root locus!

Root Locus Techniques 36
 Root Locus for Positive-Feedback Systems
• If feedback is positive then some of the rules of plotting root locus
must be modified. The closed-loop transfer function becomes:

A closed-loop pole s exists when

It affects Rules #3 and #5 only. Rules #1, #2, and #4 are unchanged.
Rule #3 Real-axis segments:
For positive-feedback systems the root locus exists on the real axis
along sections where the locus for negative-feedback systems does not
exist. In particular, The root locus for positive-feedback systems exists to
the left of an even number of real-axis, finite open-loop poles and/or
finite open-loop zeros.
Root Locus Techniques 37
 Root Locus for Positive-Feedback Systems
Rule #5 Behavior at infinity:
The formula for the real-axis intercept of an asymptote is unchanged,
but the angle is different:
Same as that of negative-
feedback systems.

Different from that of

negative-feedback
systems.
where and the angle is given in radians with respect to the positive
extension of the real axis.

Root Locus Techniques 38

 Root Locus for Positive-Feedback Systems
Example: Sketch the root locus as a function of negative gain, K, for the
system below:
-
Solution: we first push the negative sign to the right of the pickoff point:

This transforms the system to a positive-feedback system with positive

gain.

Root Locus Techniques 39