The relative variance criterion for stability of delay systems (Q1209576)

The author presents a new approach to the study of delay systems when little information is known about the time delays. The method is based on the fact that stability information may be deduced from the statistical properties of the probability distribution that encodes the structure of the time delay. The main statistical variables used are the expectation \(E\) and the relative variance \(R\), which the author defines as the ratio of the variance to the square of \(E\). In this paper he analyzes a 4- parameter family of delay systems widely used in practice. This model consists of the family whose delay density function is the product of a quadratic polynomial and an exponential delay factor. The pair \((E,R)\) is found to be a reliable indicator of stability over the global parameter domain of the family.