Solving Time-Varying System of Nonlinear Equations by Finite-Time Recurrent Neural Networks With Application to Motion Tracking of Robot Manipulators

Two novel nonlinearly activated recurrent neural networks (RNNs) with finite-time convergence [called finite-time RNNs (FTRNNs)] are proposed and analyzed to solve efficiently time-varying systems of nonlinear equations (SoNEs). Compared with previously presented neural networks for solving such a SoNE, the FTRNNs are activated by new nonlinear activation functions and thus possess a better finite-time convergence property. In addition, theoretical analyses about FTRNNs are presented to determine the upper bounds of convergence time under the context of using such two novel nonlinear activation functions. Computer simulations based on a numerical example validate the preponderance of the proposed FTRNNs for time-varying SoNE, as compared to the recently proposed Zhang neural network and its improved version. Finally, an engineering practical example to motion tracking of a robot manipulator demonstrates the feasibility and applicability of the FTRNNs.