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 physical, biological, and engineering systems. In applications it is often desirable to maintain sustained chaos even in parameter regimes of transient chaos. We address how to sustain transient chaos in deterministic flows. We utilize a simple and practical method, based on extracting the fundamental dynamics from time series, to maintain chaos. The method can result in control of trajectories from almost all initial conditions in the original basin of 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 bursting behavior in a chemical reaction system. @S1063-651X~99!04902-8#