Machado, J. A. TenreiroLopes, António M.2016-12-142015-11-03http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/8789This paper explores the use of multidimensional scaling for analyzing the dynamics of the N-link planar pendulum. Several integer- and fractional-order pendular systems are studied based on the time response and energy of the links. The dynamics get increasingly complex and chaotic with the number of degrees-of-freedom. The numerical experiments demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed methodology in analyzing the data and motivate its extension for other performance measures and dynamical systems.engN-link pendulumDynamical systemsFractional calculusMultidimensional scalingClusteringjournal article10.1016/j.chaos.2015.10.013