ABSTRACT
If there is a sensitivity function of a time-domain characteristic, for instance, that of the weight function of linear systems, in many cases there is a sensitivity function of the transfer function. This chapter presents general expressions for first-order sensitivity coefficients. For indirect evaluation of the quality of transients, various integrals from system phase coordinates, their derivatives and other combinations of all of them are widely used in automatic control theory. For solution of a number of analysis and design problems for control systems with account for low sensitivity it is necessary to compare various sensitivity functions. A large number of quality indices used in automatic control theory can be divided into the following four groups: indices of precision, stability gain, speed of acting, and composite indices. Many of them, especially precision indices, can be used for estimation of the properties of sensitivity functions. For many systems the sensitivity functions are oscillatory processes.
