Design of exponential state estimators for neural networks with mixed time delays

In this Letter, the state estimation problem is dealt with for a class of recurrent neural networks (RNNs) with mixed discrete and distributed delays. The activation functions are assumed to be neither monotonic, nor differentiable, nor bounded. We aim at designing a state estimator to estimate the neuron states, through available output measurements, such that the dynamics of the estimation error is globally exponentially stable in the presence of mixed time delays. By using the Laypunov–Krasovskii functional, a linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach is developed to establish sufficient conditions to guarantee the existence of the state estimators. We show that both the existence conditions and the explicit expression of the desired estimator can be characterized in terms of the solution to an LMI. A simulation example is exploited to show the usefulness of the derived LMI-based stability conditions.