Failure of parameter identification based on adaptive synchronization techniques

In this paper, several examples as well as their numerical simulations are provided to show some possible failures of parameter identification based on the so-called adaptive synchronization techniques. These failures might arise not only when the synchronized orbit produced by the driving system is designed to be either some kind of equilibrium or to be some kind of periodic orbit, but also when this orbit is deliberately designed to be chaotic. The reason for emergence of these failures is theoretically analyzed in the paper and the boundedness of all trajectories generated by the coupled systems is rigorously proved. Moreover, synchronization techniques are proposed to realize complete synchronization and unknown parameter identification in a class of systems where nonlinear terms are not globally Lipschitz. In addition, unknown parameter identification is studied in coupled systems with time delays.