Closed-loop pole

Article summary

In systems theory, closed-loop poles are the positions of the poles (or eigenvalues) of a closed-loop transfer function in the s-plane. The open-loop transfer function is equal to the product of all transfer function blocks in the forward path in the block diagram. The closed-loop transfer function is obtained by dividing the open-loop transfer function by the sum of one and the product of all transfer function blocks throughout the negative feedback loop. The closed-loop transfer function may also be obtained by algebraic or block diagram manipulation. Once the closed-loop transfer function is obtained for the system, the closed-loop poles are obtained by solving the characteristic equation. The characteristic equation is nothing more than setting the denominator of the closed-loop transfer function to zero. In control theory there are two main methods of analyzing feedback systems: the transfer function (or frequency domain) method and the state space method. When the transfer function method is used, attention is focused on the locations in the s-plane where the transfer function is undefined (the poles) or zero (the zeroes; see Zeroes and poles). Two different transfer functions are of interest to the designer.…

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