An Extremely Simple Multi-Wing Chaotic System: Dynamics Analysis, Encryption Application and Hardware Implementation

Polynomial functions have been the main barrier restricting the circuit realization and engineering application of multiwing chaotic systems (MWCSs). To eliminate this bottleneck, we construct a simple MWCS without polynomial functions by introducing a sinusoidal function in a Sprott C system. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulations show that the MWCS can not only generate multibutterfly attractors with an arbitrary number of butterflies, but also adjust the number of the butterflies by multiple ways including self-oscillating time, control parameters, and initial states. To further explore the advantage of the proposed MWCS, we realize its analog circuit using commercially available electronic elements. The results demonstrate that in comparison to traditional MWCSs, our circuit implementation greatly reduces the consumption of electronic components. This makes the MWCS more suitable for many chaos-based engineering applications. Furthermore, we propose an application of the MWCS to chaotic image encryption. Histogram, correlation, information entropy, and key sensitivity show that the simple image encryption scheme has a high security and reliable encryption performance. Finally, we develop a field-programmable gate array test platform to implement the MWCS-based image cryptosystem. Both theoretical analysis and experimental results verify the feasibility and availability of the proposed MWCS.