A Novel Method for Solving Ordinary Differential Equations with Artificial Neural Networks

This research work investigates the use of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based on models for solving first and second order linear constant coefficient ordinary differential equations with initial conditions. In particular, we employ a feed-forward Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network (MLPNN), but bypass the standard back-propagation algorithm for updating the intrinsic weights. A trial solution of the differential equation is written as a sum of two parts. The first part satisfies the initial or boundary conditions and contains no adjustable parameters. The second part involves a feed-forward neural network to be trained to satisfy the differential equation. Numerous works have appeared in recent times regarding the solution of differential equations using ANN, however majority of these employed a single hidden layer perceptron model, incorporating a back-propagation algorithm for weight updation. For the homogeneous case, we assume a solution in exponential form and compute a polynomial approximation using statistical regression. From here we pick the unknown coefficients as the weights from input layer to hidden layer of the associated neural network trial solution. To get the weights from hidden layer to the output layer, we form algebraic equations incorporating the default sign of the differential equations. We then apply the Gaussian Radial Basis function (GRBF) approximation model to achieve our objective. The weights obtained in this manner need not be adjusted. We proceed to develop a Neural Network algorithm using MathCAD software, which enables us to slightly adjust the intrinsic biases. We compare the convergence and the accuracy of our results with analytic solutions, as well as well-known numerical methods and obtain satisfactory results for our example ODE problems.

Solving Riccati-Type Nonlinear Differential Equations with Novel Artificial Neural Networks

In this study we investigate neural network solutions to nonlinear differential equations of Ricatti-type. We employ a feed-forward Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network (MLPNN), but avoid the standard back-propagation algorithm for updating the intrinsic weights. Our objective is to minimize an error, which is a function of the network parameters i.e., the weights and biases. Once the weights of the neural network are obtained by our systematic procedure, we need not adjust all the parameters in the network, as postulated by many researchers before us, in order to achieve convergence. We only need to fine-tune our biases which are fixed to lie in a certain given range, and convergence to a solution with an acceptable minimum error is achieved. This greatly reduces the computational complexity of the given problem. We provide two important ODE examples, the first is a Ricatti type differential equation to which the procedure is applied, and this gave us perfect agreement with the exact solution. The second example however provided us with only an acceptable approximation to the exact solution. Our novel artificial neural networks procedure has demonstrated quite clearly the function approximation capabilities of ANN in the solution of nonlinear differential equations of Ricatti type.