The absolute stability of uncertain nonlinear systems using new formulations of the circle criteria

The purpose of this paper is to study the problem of the absolute stability of nonlinear systems with variable plant parameters. New formulations of the circle and off axis circle criteria are developed which enable one to assess the stability of a control system containing a nonlinearity and plant with parametric uncertainties. In contrast to the classical approach which uses the Nyquist plot, the proposed method makes use of the narrowest possible Bode envelopes obtained from new results obtained by the authors where the plant transfer function is taken in factored form.