Asynchronous machines are a topic of great interest in the research area of actuators. Due to the complexity of these systems and to the required performance, the modelling and control of asynchronous machines are complex questions. Problems arise when the control goals require accurate descriptions of the electric machine or when we need to identify some electrical parameters; in the models employed it becomes very hard to take into account all the phenomena involved and therefore to make the error amplitude adequately small. Moreover, it is well known that, though an efficient control strategy requires knowledge of the flux vector, direct measurement of this quantity, using ad hoc transducers, does not represent a suitable approach, because it results in expensive machines. It is therefore necessary to perform an estimation of this vector, based on adequate dynamic non-linear models. Several different strategies have been proposed in literature to solve the items in a suitable manner. In this paper the authors propose a neural approach both to derive NARMAX models for asynchronous machines and to design non-linear observers: the need to use complex models that may be inefficient for control aims is therefore avoided. The results obtained with the strategy proposed were compared with simulations obtained by considering a classical fifth-order non-linear model.

In the paper a new type of Multilayer Perceptron, developed in Quaternion Algebra, is adopted to realize short-time prediction of chaotic time series. The new introduced neural structure, based on MLP and developed in the hypercomplex quaternion algebra (HMLP) allows accurate results with a decreased network complexity with respect to the real MLP. The short term prediction of various chaotic circuits and systems has been performed, with particular emphasys to the Chua's circuit, the Saito's circuit with hyperchaotic behaviour and the Lorenz system. The accuracy of the prediction is evaluated through a correlation index between the actual predicted terms of the time series. A comparison of the performance obtained with both the real MLP and the hypercomplex one is also reported.

In this paper, after the introduction of the definition of State Controlled Cellular Neural Networks (SC-CNNs), it is shown that they are able to generate complex dynamics of circuits showing strange behaviour. Theoretical propoitions are presented to fix the templates of the SC-CNNs in such a way as to exactly match the dynamic behaviour of the circuits considered. The easy and cheap implementation of the proposed SC-CNN devices is illustrated and a gallery of experimentally obtained strange attractors are shown to confirm the practical suitability of the outlined strategy.