Dither signals with particular application to the control of windscreen wiper blades

This study verifies chaotic motion of an automotive wiper system, which consists of two blades driven by a DC motor via the two connected four-bar linkages and then elucidates a system for chaotic control. A bifurcation diagram reveals complex nonlinear behaviors over a range of parameter values. Next, the largest Lyapunov exponent is estimated to identify periodic and chaotic motions. Finally, a method for controlling a chaotic automotive wiper system will be proposed. The method involves applying another external input, called a dither signal, to the system. Some simulation results are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.