Transient chaotic behaviour versus periodic motion of a parametric pendulum by recurrence plots

Abstract We investigated dynamic responses of a parametric pendulum obtained experimentally. Using the recurrence plot technique designed to analyze experimental time series we have distinguished different types of motion. This method, supplemented by recurrence quantification analysis (RQA), has been used to identify oscillations, rotations, and transient chaotic vibrations for relatively short time series composed of only few cycles.