Abstract
Based on a general principle of physics that a physical system is in the most stable state if it is of the lowest energy state, a new method for chaos control is proposed. A calculable generalized energy function in a nonlinear system is suggested for measuring control process. The Henon map and Lorenz system are taken as two typical examples to demonstrate the method. A series of stabilized periodic orbits as well as inverse sequence of chaotic bands are obtained. At the same time, a unified mechanism of physics for several kinds of current chaos control methods is studied using the idea proposed in this paper.