Method for automatic stability detection of a regulator cascade

A method for automatic stability detection of a regulator cascade having a number of cascaded regulators, wherein a regulation error of a respective regulator is processed by the respective regulator and the processed regulation error is output as a regulator manipulated variable, wherein a reference variable for a respectively downstream regulator in the regulator cascade is ascertained as a function of the regulator manipulated variable, the method comprising the steps of:

• a) ascertaining an energy content of a respective regulation error,
• b) ascertaining whether an absolute value of a respective regulator manipulated variable exceeds an associated limiting value or not, and
• c) generating a stability measure for the regulator cascade as a function of the energy contents of the respective regulation errors and as a function of whether the respective regulator manipulated variables exceed their associated limiting values or not;
• wherein:
• steps a) and c) are repeated in a fixed time grid;
• and
• regulations of the cascaded regulators are executed on a computer in the fixed time grid and in a defined sequence.