Analogue and Physical Reservoir Computing Using Water Waves: Applications in Power Engineering and Beyond

More than 3.5 billion people live in rural areas, where water and water energy resources play an important role in ensuring sustainable and productive rural economies. This article reviews and critically analyses the recent advances in the field of analogue and reservoir computing that have been driven by the unique physical properties and energy of water waves. It also demonstrates that analogue and physical reservoir computing, taken as an independent research field, holds the potential to bring artificial intelligence closer to people living outside large cities, thus enabling them to enjoy the benefits of novel technologies that are already in place in large cities but are not readily available or suitable for regional communities. In particular, although the physical reservoir computing systems discussed in the main text are universal in terms of processing input data and making forecasts, they can be used to design and optimise power grid networks and forecast energy consumption, both at local and global scales. Thus, this review article will be of interest to a broad readership interested in novel concepts of artificial intelligence and machine learning and their innovative practical applications in diverse areas of science and technology.