Controlling transient chaos in deterministic flows with applications to electrical power systems and ecology

Transient chaos is a common phenomenon in nonlinear dynamics of many physic al, biological, and engineering systems. In applications it is often desira ble to maintain sustained chaos even in parameter regimes of transient chao s. We address how to sustain transient chaos in deterministic flows. We uti lize a simple and practical method, based on extracting the fundamental dyn amics from time series, to maintain chaos. The method can result in control of trajectories from almost all initial conditions in the original basin o f the chaotic attractor from which transient chaos is created. We apply our method to three problems: (1) voltage collapse in electrical power systems , (2) species preservation in ecology, and (3) elimination of undesirable b ursting behavior in a chemical reaction system. [S1063-651X(99)04902-8].