Typically, nonlinearity is considered to be problematic and sometimes can lead to dire consequences. However, the nonlinearity in a Duffing oscillator array can enhance its ability to be used as a reservoir computer. Machine learning and artificial neural networks, inspired from the biological computing framework, have shown their immense potential, especially in real-time temporal data processing. Here, the efficacy of a Duffing oscillator array is explored as a reservoir computer by using information theory. To do this, a reservoir computer model is studied numerically, which exploits the dynamics of the array. In this system, the complex dynamics stem from the Duffing term in each of the identical oscillators. The effects of various system parameters of the array on the information processing ability is discussed from the perspective of information theory. By varying these parameters, the information metric was found to be topologically mixed. Additionally, the importance of asynchrony in the oscillator array is also discussed in terms of the information metric. Since such nonlinear oscillators are used to model many different physical systems, this research provides insight into how physical nonlinear oscillatory systems can be used for dynamic computation, without significantly modifying or controlling the underlying dynamical system. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first use of Shannon's information rate for quantifying a reservoir computer of this kind, as well as the first comparison between synchronization phenomena and the computing ability of a reservoir.
This paper explores the stochastic dynamics of a Hopf adaptive frequency oscillator when driven by noise. Adaptive oscillators are nonlinear oscillators that store information via plastic states. As noise is ubiquitous in physical systems, it is important to gain an understanding of the stochastic effects on adaptive oscillators. Previously, it has been shown that a simplified analysis of the Fokker–Planck equation results in affecting the plastic frequency state of these oscillators. However, when the full Fokker–Planck equation is considered, new behaviors are observed due to changes in oscillation amplitudes in addition to frequencies. The plastic frequency state of these oscillators may benefit from enhanced learning due to small amplitudes of noise, converge to incorrect values for medium amplitudes of noise, and even collapse to zero in the limit of large amplitudes of noise. Interestingly, not all averaged states collapse equally, which leads a two dimensional limit cycle to collapse into single dimensional oscillations when considering the averaged dynamics. These behaviors are compared analytically through the Fokker–Planck equation, numerically using the Euler–Maruyama simulations, and finally validated experimentally using an analog, electronic circuit. These results show that noise can enhance, mislead, or even reduce the dimensionality of the averaged adaptive Hopf oscillator.
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