This paper shows that a large class of systems, introduced in [Čelikovský & Vaněček, 1994; Vaněček & Čelikovský, 1996] as the so-called generalized Lorenz system, are state-equivalent to a special canonical form that covers a broader class of chaotic systems. This canonical form, called generalized Lorenz canonical form hereafter, generalizes the one introduced and analyzed in [Čelikovský & Vaněček, 1994; Vaněček & Čelikovský, 1996], and also covers the so-called Chen system, recently introduced in [Chen & Ueta, 1999; Ueta & Chen, 2000].Thus, this new generalized Lorenz canonical form contains as special cases the original Lorenz system, the generalized Lorenz system, and the Chen system, so that a comparison of the structures between two essential types of chaotic systems becomes possible. The most important property of the new canonical form is the parametrization that has precisely a single scalar parameter useful for chaos tuning, which has promising potential in future engineering chaos design. Some other closely related topics are also studied and discussed in the paper.
