Special Issue on Neurodynamic Systems for Optimization and Applications.

Recurrent neural networks, as dynamical systems, are usually used as models for solving computationally intensive problems. Because of their inherent nature of parallel and distributed information processing, recurrent neural networks are promising computational models for real-time applications. Constrained optimization problems arise in a wide variety of scientific and engineering applications, including signal and image processing, system identification, robot control, process control, pattern recognition, etc. Since the Hopfield neural network was introduced for solving optimization problems, significant progress has been made in theory, algorithms and applications. A number of neurodynamic models have been proposed for solving different problems ranging from discrete optimization to continuous optimization, linear programming to nonlinear optimization, convex optimization to non-convex optimization, smooth optimization to non-smooth optimization, numerical software to analog hardware implementations, etc. Some of them have been successfully applied to robot control, process control, signal and image processing, pattern recognition and classification, economic prediction and so on. In addition, as a kind of neuromorphic systems, they are potentially useful for simulating the brain functions, which is an important topic in neuroscience.