In
nonlinear control
Nonlinear control theory is the area of control theory which deals with systems that are nonlinear, time-variant, or both. Control theory is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering and mathematics that is concerned with the behavior of dyn ...
and
stability theory, the circle criterion is a
stability criterion In control theory, and especially stability theory, a stability criterion establishes when a system is stable. A number of stability criteria are in common use:
* Circle criterion
* Jury stability criterion
*Liénard–Chipart criterion
* Nyquis ...
for nonlinear time-varying systems. It can be viewed as a generalization of the
Nyquist stability criterion
In control theory and stability theory, the Nyquist stability criterion or Strecker–Nyquist stability criterion, independently discovered by the German electrical engineer at Siemens in 1930 and the Swedish-American electrical engineer Harry ...
for
linear time-invariant (LTI) systems.
Overview
Consider a linear system subject to non-linear feedback, i.e. a non linear element
is present in the feedback loop. Assume that the element satisfies a sector condition