Observation of the route to chaos in the impact oscillator using the vision-based motion sensor

Abstract

We present our observation of the route to chaos of the impact oscillator, a driven oscillator whose mass bounces off a barrier. We have used the vision-based motion sensor (VBMS), a measuring technique developed here at the University of San Carlos, to analyze the motion of the system. As the driving frequency ω of the impact oscillator is increased, the system's dynamics changes from regular (ω = 5.67 rad/s) to double periodic (ω = 6.01 rad/s) to chaotic (ω = 6.44 rad/s). The experimental result is in agreement with the result we obtained from our numerical simulations.