Full- and reduced-order synchronization of a class of time-varying systems containing uncertainties

Investigation on chaos synchronization of autonomous dynamical systems has been largely reported in the literature. However, synchronization of time-varying, or nonautonomous, uncertain dynamical systems has received less attention. The present contribution addresses full- and reduced-order synchronization of a class of nonlinear time-varying chaotic systems containing uncertain parameters. A unified framework is established for both the full-order synchronization between two completely identical time-varying uncertain systems and the reduced-order synchronization between two strictly different time-varying uncertain systems. The synchronization is successfully achieved by adjusting the determined algorithms for the estimates of unknown parameters and the linear feedback gain, which is rigorously proved by means of the Lyapunov stability theorem for nonautonomous differential equations together with Barbalat’s lemma. Moreover, the synchronization result is robust against the disturbance of noise. We illustrate the applicability for full-order synchronization using two identical parametrically driven pendulum oscillators and for reduced-order synchronization using the parametrically driven second-order pendulum oscillator and an additionally driven third-order Rossler oscillator.