11/29/2020 Rise time, settling time, and other step-response characteristics - MATLAB stepinfo

stepinfo
Rise time, settling time, and other step-response characteristics

Syntax

S = stepinfo(sys)

S = stepinfo(y,t)
S = stepinfo(y,t,yfinal)

S = stepinfo( ___ ,'SettlingTimeThreshold',ST)

S = stepinfo( ___ ,'RiseTimeLimits',RT)

Description
S = stepinfo(sys)computes the step-response characteristics for a dynamic system model sys. The example
function returns the characteristics in a structure containing the fields:
• RiseTime — Time it takes for the response to rise from 10% to 90% of the steady-state response.
• SettlingTime — Time it takes for the error |y(t) - y final| between the response y(t) and the steady-
state response y to fall to within 2% of y .
final final

• SettlingMin — Minimum value of y(t) once the response has risen.

• SettlingMax — Maximum value of y(t) once the response has risen.
• Overshoot — Percentage overshoot, relative to y final.
• Undershoot — Percentage undershoot.
• Peak — Peak absolute value of y(t)
• PeakTime — Time at which the peak value occurs.

The following figure illustrates some of these quantities on a typical second-order response.

Using this syntax requires a Control System Toolbox™ license.

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11/29/2020 Rise time, settling time, and other step-response characteristics - MATLAB stepinfo

S = stepinfo(y,t) computes step-response characteristics from an array of step-response data y and

corresponding time vector t. For SISO system responses, y is a vector with the same number of entries
as t. For MIMO response data, y is an array containing the responses of each I/O channel. This syntax
uses the last value in y (or the last value in each channel's corresponding response data) as the steady-
state value for computing characteristics that depend on that value.
example
S = stepinfo(y,t,yfinal) computes step-response characteristics relative to the steady-state value
yfinal. This syntax is useful when you know that the expected steady-state system response differs
from the last value in y for reasons such as measurement noise.
For SISO responses, t and y are vectors with the same length NS. For systems with NU inputs and NY
outputs, you can specify y as an NS-by-NY-by-NU array (see step) and yfinal as an NY-by-NU array.
stepinfo then returns a NY-by-NU structure array S of performance metrics for each I/O pair.

S = stepinfo( ___ ,'SettlingTimeThreshold',ST) lets you specify the threshold ST used in the example
definition of settling time. The response has settled when the error |y(t) - yfinal| becomes smaller
than a fraction ST of its peak value. The default value is ST = 0.02 (2%). You can use this syntax with
any of the previous input-argument combinations.
example
S = stepinfo( ___ ,'RiseTimeLimits',RT) lets you specify the lower and upper thresholds used in
the definition of rise time. By default, the rise time is defined as the time the response takes to rise from
10 to 90% of the steady-state value (RT = [0.1 0.9]). The upper threshold RT(2) is also used to
calculate SettlingMin and SettlingMax. These values are the minimum and maximum values of the
response occurring after the response has reached the upper threshold. You can use this syntax with
any of the previous input-argument combinations.

Examples collapse all

 Step-Response Characteristics of Dynamic System

Compute step-response characteristics such as rise time, settling time, and

overshoot for a dynamic system model. For this example, use the continuous- Try This Example
time transfer function:
2
View MATLAB Command
s + 5s + 5
sys = .
4 3 2
s + 1. 65s + 5s + 6. 5s + 2

Create the transfer function and examine its step response.

sys = tf([1 5 5],[1 1.65 5 6.5 2]);

step(sys)

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11/29/2020 Rise time, settling time, and other step-response characteristics - MATLAB stepinfo

The plot shows that the response rises in a few seconds, and then rings down to a steady-state value of about
2.5. Compute the characteristics of this response using stepinfo.

S = stepinfo(sys)

S = struct with fields:

RiseTime: 3.8456
SettlingTime: 27.9762
SettlingMin: 2.0689
SettlingMax: 2.6873
Overshoot: 7.4915
Undershoot: 0
Peak: 2.6873
PeakTime: 8.0530

By default, the settling time is the time it takes for y(t ) − y final
to fall below 2% of its peak value, where y(t ) is the
system response at time t and y is the steady-state response. The result S.SettlingTime shows that for
final

sys, this condition occurs after about 28 seconds. The default definition of rise time is the time it takes for the
response to go from 10% of its steady-state value to 90% of that value. S.RiseTime shows that for sys, this rise
occurs in less than 4 seconds. The maximum overshoot is returned in S.Overshoot. For this system, the peak
value S.Peak, which occurs at the time S.PeakTime, overshoots the steady-state value by about 7.5% of the
steady-state value.

 Step-Response Characteristics of MIMO System

For a MIMO system, stepinfo returns a structure array in which each entry
contains the response characteristics of the corresponding I/O channel of the Try This Example
system. For this example, use a two-output, two-input discrete-time system.
Compute the step-response characteristics. View MATLAB Command

A = [0.68 -0.34; 0.34 0.68];

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11/29/2020 Rise time, settling time, and other step-response characteristics - MATLAB stepinfo

B = [0.18 -0.05; 0.04 0.11];

C = [0 -1.53; -1.12 -1.10];
D = [0 0; 0.06 -0.37];
sys = ss(A,B,C,D,0.2);

S = stepinfo(sys)

S=2×2 struct array with fields:

RiseTime
SettlingTime
SettlingMin
SettlingMax
Overshoot
Undershoot
Peak
PeakTime

Access the response characteristics for a particular I/0 channel by indexing into S. For instance, examine the
response characteristics for the response from the first input to the second output of sys, corresponding to
S(2,1).

S(2,1)

ans = struct with fields:

RiseTime: 0.4000
SettlingTime: 2.8000
SettlingMin: -0.6724
SettlingMax: -0.5188
Overshoot: 24.6476
Undershoot: 11.1224
Peak: 0.6724
PeakTime: 1

To access a particular value, use dot notation. For instance, extract the rise time of the (2,1) channel.

rt21 = S(2,1).RiseTime

rt21 = 0.4000

 Specify Definition of Settling Time or Rise Time

By default, stepinfo defines settling time as the time it takes for the error
 y(t) − y  between the response y(t) and the steady-state response y
final final
to Try This Example
come within 2% of yfinal . Also, stepinfo defines the rise time as the time it
takes for the response to rise from 10% of y to 90% of y . You can change
final final
View MATLAB Command
these definitions using SettlingTimeThreshold and RiseTimeThreshold. For
this example, use the system given by:
2
s + 5s + 5
sys = .
4 3
s + 1. 65s + 6. 5s + 2

Create the transfer function.

sys = tf([1 5 5],[1 1.65 5 6.5 2]);

Compute the time it takes for the error in the response of sys to to reach 0.5% of the steady-state response. To
do so, set SettlingTimeThreshold to 0.5%, or 0.005.

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11/29/2020 Rise time, settling time, and other step-response characteristics - MATLAB stepinfo

S1 = stepinfo(sys,'SettlingTimeThreshold',0.005);
st1 = S1.SettlingTime

st1 = 46.1325
Compute the time it takes the response of sys to rise from 5% to 95% of the steady-state value. To do so, set
RiseTimeThreshold to a vector containing those bounds.

S2 = stepinfo(sys,'RiseTimeThreshold',[0.05 0.95]);
rt2 = S2.RiseTime

rt2 = 4.1690
You can define both settling time and rise time in the same computation.

S3 = stepinfo(sys,'SettlingTimeThreshold',0.005,'RiseTimeThreshold',[0.05 0.95])

S3 = struct with fields:

RiseTime: 4.1690
SettlingTime: 46.1325
SettlingMin: 2.0689
SettlingMax: 2.6873
Overshoot: 7.4915
Undershoot: 0
Peak: 2.6873
PeakTime: 8.0530

 Step-Response Characteristics from Response Data

You can extract step-response characteristics from step-response data even if

you do not have a model of your system. For instance, suppose you have Try This Example
measured the response of your system to a step input, and saved the resulting
response data in a vector y of response values at the times stored in another View MATLAB Command
vector, t. Load the response data and examine it.

load StepInfoData t y
plot(t,y)

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11/29/2020 Rise time, settling time, and other step-response characteristics - MATLAB stepinfo

Compute step-response characteristics from this response data using stepinfo. If you do not specify the steady-
state response value yfinal, then stepinfo assumes that the last value in the response vector y is the steady-
state response.Because there is some noise in the data, the last value in y is likely not the true steady-state
response value. When you know what the steady-state value should be, you can provide it to stepinfo. For this
example, suppose that the steady-state response is 2.4.

S1 = stepinfo(y,t,2.4)

S1 = struct with fields:

RiseTime: 1.2713
SettlingTime: 19.6478
SettlingMin: 2.0219
SettlingMax: 3.3302
Overshoot: 38.7575
Undershoot: 0
Peak: 3.3302
PeakTime: 3.4000

Because of the noise in the data, the default definition of the settling time is too stringent, resulting in an arbitrary
value of almost 20 seconds. To allow for the noise, increase the settling-time threshold from the default 2% to 5%.

S2 = stepinfo(y,t,2.4,'SettlingTimeThreshold',0.05)

S2 = struct with fields:

RiseTime: 1.2713
SettlingTime: 10.4201
SettlingMin: 2.0219
SettlingMax: 3.3302
Overshoot: 38.7575
Undershoot: 0
Peak: 3.3302
PeakTime: 3.4000

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Input Arguments collapse all

sys — Dynamic system

 dynamic system model

Dynamic system, specified as a SISO or MIMO dynamic system model. Dynamic systems that you can use
include:

• Continuous-time or discrete-time numeric LTI models, such as tf, zpk, or ss models.

• Generalized or uncertain LTI models such as genss or uss (Robust Control Toolbox) models. (Using uncertain
models requires Robust Control Toolbox™ software.) For generalized models, stepinfo computes the step-
response characteristics using the current value of tunable blocks and the nominal value of uncertain blocks.
• Identified LTI models, such as idtf (System Identification Toolbox), idss (System Identification Toolbox), or
idproc (System Identification Toolbox) models. (Using identified models requires System Identification
Toolbox™ software.)

y — Step-response data
 vector | array

Step-response data, specified as:

• For SISO response data, a vector of length Ns, where Ns is the number of samples in the response data.
• For MIMO response data, an Ns-by-Ny-by-Nu array, where Ny is the number of system outputs, and Nu is the
number of system inputs.

t — Time vector
 vector

Time vector corresponding to the response data in y, specified as a vector of length Ns.

yfinal — Steady-state response

 scalar | array

Steady-state response, specified as:

• For SISO response data, a scalar value.

• For MIMO response data, an Ny-by-Nu array, where each entry provides the steady-state response value for
the corresponding system channel.

If you do not provide yfinal, then stepinfo uses the last value in the corresponding channel of y as the steady-
state response value.

ST — Threshold for defining settling time

 0.02 (default) | scalar between 0 and 1

Threshold for defining settling time, specified as a scalar value between 0 and 1. By default, stepinfo defines
settling time as the time it takes for the error |y(t) - y | between the response y(t) and the steady-state response
final

y to fall to within 2% of y . To change this definition, set ST to a different value. For instance, to set a
final final

threshold of 5%, set ST to 0.05.

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RT — Thresholds for defining rise time

 [0.1 0.9] (default) | 2-element row vector

Threshold for defining rise time, specified as a 2-element row vector of nondescending values between 0 and 1.
By default, stepinfo defines rise time as the time it takes for the response to rise from 10% to 90% of the steady-
state value y . To change this definition, set RT to a different value. For instance, to define the rise time as the
final

time it takes for the response to rise from 5% to 95% of the steady-state value, set RT to [0.05 0.95].

Output Arguments collapse all

S — Step-response characteristics
 structure

Step-response characteristics of sys, returned as a structure containing the fields:

• RiseTime — Time it takes for the response to rise from 10% to 90% of the steady-state response.
• SettlingTime — Time it takes for the error |y(t) - y final | between the response y(t) and the steady-state
response y to fall to within 2% of y .
final final

• SettlingMin — Minimum value of y(t) once the response has risen.

• SettlingMax — Maximum value of y(t) once the response has risen.
• Overshoot — Percentage overshoot, relative to y final).
• Undershoot — Percentage undershoot.
• Peak — Peak absolute value of y(t)
• PeakTime — Time at which the peak value occurs.

For MIMO models or responses data, S is a structure array in which each entry contains the step-response
characteristics of the corresponding I/O channel. For instance, if you provide a 3-input, 3-output model or array of
response data, then S(2,3) contains the characteristics of the response from the third input to the second output.
For an example, see Step-Response Characteristics of MIMO System.

If sys is unstable, then all step-response characteristics are NaN, except for Peak and PeakTime, which are Inf.

See Also
lsiminfo | step

Introduced in R2006a

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