Targeting in dissipative chaotic systems: A survey

The large number of unstable equilibrium modes embedded in the strange attractor of dissipative chaotic systems usually presents a sufficiently rich repertoire for the choice of the desirable motion as a target. Once the system is close enough to the chosen target local stabilization techniques can be employed to capture the system within the desired motion. The ergodic behavior of chaotic systems on their strange attractors guarantees that the system will eventually visit a close neighborhood of the target. However, for arbitrary initial conditions within the basin of attraction of the strange attractor the waiting time for such a visit may be intolerably long. In order to reduce the long waiting time it usually becomes indispensable to employ an appropriate method of targeting, which refers to the task of steering the system toward the close neighborhood of the target. This paper provides a survey of targeting methods proposed in the literature for dissipative chaotic systems. (c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.