Chaos control in a nonlinear pendulum using a semi-continuous method

Chaotic behavior of dynamical systems offers a rich variety of orbits, which can be controlled by small perturbations in either a specific parameter of the system or a dynamical variable. Chaos control usually involves two steps. In the first, unstable periodic orbits (UPOs) that are embedded in the chaotic set are identified. After that, a control technique is employed in order to stabilize a desirable orbit. This contribution employs the close-return method to identify UPOs and a semi-continuous control method, which is built up on the OGY method, to stabilize some desirable UPO. As an application to a mechanical system, a nonlinear pendulum is considered and, based on parameters obtained from an experimental setup, analyses are carried out. At first, it is considered signals generated by numerical integration of the mathematical model. After that, the analysis is done from scalar time series and therefore, it is important to evaluate the effect of state space reconstruction. Delay coordinates method is employed with this aim. Finally, an analysis related to the effect of noise in controlling chaos is of concern. Results show situations where these techniques may be used to control chaos in mechanical systems.