Stability of PID-controlled second-order time-delay feedback systems

In the previous papers, the stability of PID-controlled first-order time-delay systems has been investigated by means of several methods, of which the Nyquist criterion, a generalization of the Hermite-Biehler Theorem, and the root location method are well known. Explicit expressions of the boundaries of the stability region, which is the set of controller parameters that give stable closed-loop systems, have been determined. From these studies, one can verify that not all plants can be made stable and then obtain the set of process parameters that allow stable closed-loop systems. With this set, one can implement the stability region of the process parameters. In a recent paper the stability conditions based on Pontryagin's studies and valid for arbitrary-order plants have been presented. The procedure deduced for the controller parameters is exhaustive, but that deduced for the process parameters requires further mathematical evaluations, whose complexity is proportional to the number of process time constants. In the aforementioned recent paper these evaluations have been performed for a second-order time-delay plant whose transfer function has no zero. The aim of this paper is to execute these calculations for a second-order plant whose transfer function has one zero and to provide the related stability region. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.