Methods and apparatus for automatically detecting differences between similar but different states in a nonlinear process monitor nonlinear data. Steps include: acquiring the data; digitizing the data; obtaining nonlinear measures of the data via chaotic time series analysis; obtaining time serial trends in the nonlinear measures; and determining by comparison whether differences between similar but different states are indicated.
The United States Government has rights in this invention pursuant to contract no. DE-AC05-96OR22464 between the United States Department of Energy and Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation.