After successful completion of the course, students are able to:

• continue the module Vehicle System Dynamics and to perform the following tasks for the investigation of the stability of motion, particularly also for vehicles
• explicate the basic concepts of stability theory and the different methods for the stability analysis of moving systems
• formulate the basic equations, in particular also the variational equations
• explicate linear variational equations with both constant and variable coefficients and apply them to stability problems
• perform investigations in the phase plane, also for non-linear systems
• explicate and apply Ljapunov's direct method

Basic concepts and definitions of stability; variational equations; linear variational equations with constant and variable coefficients; methods for the analysis of stability of linear/linearized systems; treatment of non-linear systems (phase space, Ljapunov's direct method), theory and application of Ljapunov functions, problems.

Presentation of fundamentals and application based on examples.

Written exam.

Basic knowledge of mechanics and mathematics.