The Chaos Panaceas

Use of chaos in solving engineering problems has been one of the most productive areas in scientific and engineering research in recent years. Indeed, a huge number of research papers with an unprecedented amount of novelty claims have been produced in the past two decades. "Chaos applications" is still one of the trendiest topics of research. Proposals, reports and papers addressing the applications of chaos-based methods in solving practical problems are generally well received by funding bodies and journal reviewers. However, in many such proposals, reports and papers, misunderstanding and omission of the real underlying causes have led to mistaken analysis and possible misuse of chaos. It is therefore of interest to review the current state of research in this field and to clarify the various possible misunderstandings so that chaos-based applications can be developed with strong engineering judgments and consistency with scientific principles. Undeniably, chaos does offer a range of desirable features for doing certain engineering tasks, but analysis and thorough exposition of the basis of accomplishing certain tasks is still insufficient. In this talk we review the work in the field of chaos applications, especially in the formulation of solutions for practical engineering problems. Using a few case studies we illustrate the various common pitfalls in the reporting of chaos applications in engineering. Our objective is to promote the prudent use of engineering judgments and proper exercise of scientific principles when applying the theory of chaos in analyzing and solving engineering problems.