Taylor-type 1-step-ahead numerical differentiation rule for first-order derivative approximation and ZNN discretization

• A formula is proposed to approximate the first-order derivative.
• An optimal step length rule for the proposed formula is investigated.
• A Taylor-type ZNN model is derived for time-varying matrix inversion.

In order to achieve higher computational precision in approximating the first-order derivative and discretize more effectively the continuous-time Zhang neural network (ZNN), a Taylor-type numerical differentiation rule is proposed and investigated in this paper. This rule not only greatly remedies some intrinsic weaknesses of the backward and central numerical differentiation rules, but also overcomes the limitation of the Lagrange-type numerical differentiation rules in ZNN discretization. In addition, a formula is proposed to obtain the optimal step-length of the Taylor-type numerical differentiation rule. Moreover, based on the proposed numerical differentiation rule, the stability, convergence and residual error of the Taylor-type discrete-time ZNN (DTZNN) are analyzed. Numerical experimental results further substantiate the efficacy and advantages of the proposed Taylor-type numerical differentiation rule for first-order derivative approximation and ZNN discretization.