Neural Comput & Applic (2007) 16:433–441
DOI 10.1007/s00521-006-0069-3
O R I G I N A L A RT I C L E
Wavelet networks for nonlinear system modeling
Seda Postalcioglu Æ Yasar Becerikli
Received: 5 November 2005 / Accepted: 31 August 2006 / Published online: 27 September 2006

Springer-Verlag London Limited 2006
Abstract This study presents a nonlinear systems and
function learning by using wavelet network. Wavelet
networks are as neural network for training and
structural approach. But, training algorithms of wave-
let networks is required a smaller number of iterations
when the compared with neural networks. Gaussian-
based mother wavelet function is used as an activation
function. Wavelet networks have three main parame-
ters; dilation, translation, and connection parameters
(weights). Initial values of these parameters are ran-
domly selected. They are optimized during training
(learning) phase. Because of random selection of all
initial values, it may not be suitable for process mod-
eling. Because wavelet functions are rapidly vanishing
functions. For this reason heuristic procedure has been
used. In this study serial-parallel identification model
has been applied to system modeling. This structure
does not utilize feedback. Real system outputs have
been exercised for prediction of the future system
outputs. So that stability and approximation of the
network is guaranteed. Gradient methods have been
S. Postalcioglu
Department of Electronic and Computer Education,
Technical Education Faculty, Kocaeli University,
Kocaeli, Turkey
e-mail: pseda@kou.edu.tr
Y. Becerikli (&)
Department of Computer Engineering,
Engineering Faculty, Kocaeli University, Kocaeli, Turkey
e-mail: ybecerikli@kou.edu.tr; ybecer@ieee.org
Y. Becerikli
Department of Computer Engineering,
and Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering,
Halic University, Istanbul, Turkey
applied for parameters updating with momentum term.
Quadratic cost function is used for error minimization.
Three example problems have been examined in the
simulation. They are static nonlinear functions and
discrete dynamic nonlinear system.
Keywords Wavelet networks
Training
Dynamic
system modeling
Wavelet
1 Introduction
This study shows a nonlinear static function and dy-
namic system modeling using wavelet network. Re-
cently wavelet network has been used as an alternative
of the artificial neural networks because of interpre-
tation of the model with neural networks is so hard
[20]. On the other hand training algorithms for wavelet
networks require less number of iterations than neural
networks [3]. The wavelet network is an approach for
system identification in which nonlinear functions are
approximated as the superposition of dilated and
translated versions of a single function [3, 19, 20].
There is another approximation method except the
neural network. This is wavelet decomposition. In the
wavelet decomposition, only the weights are identified,
while the dilation and translations will follow the reg-
ular grid structure. In contrast, in the wavelet network,
weights dilations and translations are jointly fitted from
data [20]. Wavelet network use a wavelet like an acti-
vation function. The structure of a wavelet network is
shown in Fig. 1 [18].
The architecture of a wavelet network is exactly
specified by the number of wavelets required for a
given classification or regression application. The
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434 Neural Comput & Applic (2007) 16:433–441

Fig. 1 The structure of a

wavelet network
input x1 hidden layer output
x2
. k

. (a i x b i ) f ( x)
i 1
w i (a i b i )

.
xn

optimal wavelet network structure is achieved the best X

1

approximation and prediction capability [17]. Wavelets f ðtÞ ¼ ðf ðtÞ; wm;n ðtÞÞwm;n ðtÞ ð2Þ
m;n¼1
show local characteristics which is the main property in
both space and spatial frequency [14]. Therefore,
For computational efficiency, a0 = 2 and b0 = 1 are
among the all input scope of the network, the hidden
commonly used so that results lead to a binary dilation
nodes with the wavelet function influence the networks
of 2–m and a dyadic translation of n2m. Therefore, a
output only in some local range. This can prevent the
practical sampling lattice is a = 2m and b = n2m so that
interaction between the nodes and assist the training
(3) is obtained.
process and generalization performance. The radial
basis function is also local, but it does not have the wm;n ðtÞ ¼ 2m=2 wð2m t  nÞ ð3Þ
spatial–spectral (time–frequency) zooming property of
the wavelet function, and therefore cannot represent Another scheme of decamping f(t)2L2(R) is through
the local spatial–spectral characteristic of the function. father wavelet or the scaling function is given in (4).
So, for approximation and forecasting the wavelet X
network should have a better performance than the f ðtÞ ¼ ðf ðtÞ; UM;n ðtÞÞUM;n ðtÞ
traditional neural network [5, 15]. Families of wavelet n
X
functions especially, wavelet frames are universal ap- þ ðf ðtÞ; Um;n ðtÞÞUm;n ðtÞ ð4Þ
proximators in identification of nonlinear systems. m>M;n
Wavelet networks have been used both for static [12,
where F (t) is the scaling function that has the
20] and dynamic modeling [10, 15]. System modeling is
following relation with mother wavelet. Equations (5)
realized in three steps. First, input variables are
and (6) show this relation.
determined, second, network structure and initial
weights values are decided and finally training proce- pffiffiffiX
dure is done. The parameters of wavelet networks are UðtÞ ¼ 2 hk wð2t  kÞ ð5Þ
dilation (d), translation (m), bias a0, and weights (a, c). k

Parameters are optimized during learning phase. Gra- pffiffiffiX

wðtÞ ¼ 2 gk Uð2t  kÞ ð6Þ
dient method has been used for the optimization of
k
parameters. The continuous dynamic version of the
wavelet networks called ‘‘dynamic wavelet net- The second relation is of particular importance be-
works—DWN’’ is the other approach to model and cause if demonstrates that f(t) can be arbitrarily
control of the systems using wavelets [1, 2]. approximated closely by selecting a sufficiently large
M, the dilation parameter, such that for any
> 0. This
2 Structure of wavelet network relation is given by the following equation.
 
 X 
Wavelet network based on discrete wavelet transform  
f ðtÞ  ðf ðtÞ; UM;k ÞUM;k  \ e ð7Þ
is first proposed by Zhang. A discrete wavelet is  k

formed if we fix the two positive constants (a0 and b0)
for M enough large. The approximation by the
and define as shown in (1) [7].
truncated wavelet decomposition can be expressed by
m=2
 (8) [7].
wm;n ðtÞ ¼ a0 w am
0 t  nb0 ð1Þ
X X
where both m and n2Z. Then, for f2L2(R), (2) can be f ðtÞ  ðf ; UM;k ÞUM;k ¼ cn UM;k ð8Þ
reached [7]. k k

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Neural Comput & Applic (2007) 16:433–441 435

The result can be interpreted as the fine components 2.1 Mother wavelet function
that belong to the wavelet space Wm for the function
are neglected and coarse components that belong to The wavelets are the family of the signals that is pro-
the scaling space Vm are preserved to approximate the duced by the translations and the dilations of a mother
original function in M scales. Figure 2 shows the wavelet satisfying the admissibility condition. This
wavelet network structure. In the structure of typical condition is given in (12) [11].
multilayer feed-forward networks, if F is used as
nonlinear approximation function of the hidden units Z1  2 dx
^ 
and the connection weights (cn) then the approxima- cw ¼ wðxÞ ð12Þ
jxj
tion in (8) can be implemented. 0
Wavelet functions can be classified by two catego-
ries. These are orthogonal wavelet and wavelet frames. The term mother wavelet gets its name as two
Wavelet frames are used for application of function important properties of the wavelet analysis. The term
approximation and process modeling due to the wavelet means a small wave. The term mother implies
orthogonal wavelets cannot be expressed in closed that the functions with different region of support
form [9]. Wavelet frames are constructed by mother which are used in the transformation process. They are
wavelet. A wavelet F j (x) is derived from its / z (x) derived from the mother wavelet. In other words, the
mother wavelet: mother wavelet is a prototype to generate the other
windowing functions [13]. The main idea of wavelet
Y
Ni
theory consists of representing an arbitrary signal f(x)
Uj ðxÞ ¼ /ðzjk Þ ð9Þ
by means of a family of functions that are scaled and
k¼1
translated versions of a single main function known as
xk  mjk the mother wavelet [4]. The relationship between these
Zjk ¼ ð10Þ
djk functions is represented by (13).

1 t  m
Ni, is the number of inputs. Nw is a layer of wavelets.
wm;d ðxÞ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffi w m; d 2 R: ð13Þ
The network output y is computed as: jdj d

X
Nw X
Ni
Mother wavelet function gives an efficient, and useful
y ¼ WðxÞ ¼ cj Uj ðxÞ þ a0 þ ak xk ð11Þ
j¼1 k¼1 description of the signal of interest [16]. This function
has some general properties [10]. It is more convenient
a0, a, c are adjustable parameters of wavelet networks. in practice to use a redundant wavelet family than an
orthonormal wavelet basis for constructing the wavelet
y network, because admitting redundancy allows us to
construct wavelet functions with a simple analytical
Output layer Σ form and good spatial–spectral localization properties
c1 cj
[5]. In this paper, a nonorthogonal wavelet has been
Φ1 Φj used as a mother wavelet which is the first derivative of a
Π Π Gaussian function as shown in (14).
2
/ðxÞ ¼ xeð1=2Þx : ð14Þ
ψ 11 ψ 1k ψ j1 ψ jk

Wavelet layer
3 Wavelet network structures for nonlinear system
z11 z1k z j1 z jk
modeling
d 11 d 1k d j1 d jk
m 11 m 1k m j1 m jk
Input layer a0 System identification problem can be described in
1
three groups [8]. First of them is parallel identification
x1
a1 model. This model does not guarantee converge of the
parameters, because of the dynamic model delay out-
ak put feedback. This structure is shown in Fig. 3. This
xk
network is optimized using corresponding optimization
Fig. 2 Wavelet network structure algorithm.

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436 Neural Comput & Applic (2007) 16:433–441

u (k)
Dynamic System
y p (k) The learning is based on Stochastic Gradient algo-
rithm. This algorithm implies by (15).

@J XN
@yn
¼ en : ð15Þ
@h n¼1
@h
z -1

Off-line gradient or Newton methods may be used,

z -1
but the computation of the gradient and the Hessian
y p (k) matrix calculation is very stray to calculate [20]. So we
y (k)
- +
Dynamic Optimization preferred to recursively minimize the criterion using
Wavelet e (k) Algorithm
Network input–output. This algorithm updates the parameter
vector h after each measurement.
z -1

z -1 4 Static system modeling using wavelet network

The main purpose is to update the parameters during

the training phase. h is the set of adjustable parameters.

Fig. 3 Parallel identification model h ¼ fmjk ; djk ; cj ; ak g j ¼ 1; . . . ; Nw ; k ¼ 0; . . . ; Ni :

h is to be estimated by training so that (11)

Second is inverse system identification model as
shown in Fig. 4. This structure can be used for direct
inverse control.
And the last one is serial-parallel identification
model as shown in Fig. 5. This structure does not use
dynamic feedback. This model uses process outputs to
estimate of the following outputs. So this structure
approximates the unknown function f(
) on the domain
defined by the training set. The static behavior of the
process can be defined as y(p) = f(x). f(
) is an un-
known nonlinear function. The training procedure is
based on the minimization of a quadratic cost function
is used as shown in (16).
1X N

guarantees stability and converge according to the JðhÞ ¼ ðypn  yn Þ: ð16Þ

2 n¼1
other structures.
Figure 6 shows the static wavelet network architecture
for Nw = 1. y is the network output. The minimization
is performed by iterative gradient-based methods. The
u (k) Dynamic
yp (k) partial derivative of the cost function w.r.t. h is, w.r.t.
system
parameter a0:
Dynamic Optimization e(k)
Algorithm + @y
-
y p (k) ¼1
@a0
z -1
w.r.t. direct connection parameters:
@y
z
-1
¼ xk k ¼ 1 to Ni
@ak
Wavelet w.r.t. weights:
Network

z -1 @y
¼ Uj ðxÞ j ¼ 1 to Nw
@cj
z -1
w.r.t. translations:

@y @y @Uj @wjk @zjk

¼
Fig. 4 Inverse system identification model
@mjk @Uj @wjk @zjk @mjk

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Neural Comput & Applic (2007) 16:433–441 437

@zjk 1
u (k) Dynamic y p (k) ¼
System
@mjk djk

w.r.t. dilations:

@y @y @Uj @wjk @zjk

¼
z −1 @djk @Uj @wjk @zjk @djk

@zjk ðx  mjk Þ

¼
z −1 + @djk d2jk
wavelet e (k)
y(k) Optimization
network − Alg.
Equations (17) and (18) have been used for
parameters updating.
z−1

@j
htþ1 ¼ ht þ l  ð17Þ
@h
−1
z
ht shows current parameters. ht+1 shows updated
Actual Output parameters. l is the learning rate. In this study
momentum term which increases the learning speed
Fig. 5 Serial-parallel identification model
has been used,

@j
htþ1 ¼ ht þ l  þ a½ht  ht1  ð18Þ
@h

where a is the momentum coefficient. a is selected

between 0 and 1.

4.1 Initialization of the network parameters

Selecting initial values of the wavelet network

parameters are important because initial value affects
the speed of the training and approximation to the
global or local minimum. Weights are updated
according to the derivative of the activation function
at selected initial value. Functions and derivative of
the functions cannot be zero. Initial value is signifi-
cant for wavelet network because wavelets have
localization properties [9] and wavelets may exit from
Fig. 6 Static wavelet network architecture for Nw = 1 the related domain because of initial value. On the
other hand, initial values may make some wavelets
local and the components of the gradient of the cost
@y function very small in areas of interest. So selecting
¼ cj initial values of dilation (djk) and translation (mjk)
@Uj
randomly may not be suitable for process modeling.
@Uj In this study, the vector m of wavelet j at the center
¼ wðzj1 Þwðzj2 Þ


w0 ðzjk Þ


wðzjNi Þ of parallelepiped defined by the Ni intervals {[ak,bk]}
@wjk
and the dilation parameters are initialized to the
k ¼ 1; . . . Ni ; j ¼ 1; . . . ; Nw value as shown in (19) [10].

@wjk 2 2 2 1 1
¼ ezjk =2 þ z2jk ezjk =2 ¼ zjk ezjk =2  zjk djk ¼ 0; 2ðbk  ak Þ and mjk ¼ ðak þ bk Þ: ð19Þ
@zjk zjk 2

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438 Neural Comput & Applic (2007) 16:433–441

8
Equation (19) guarantees that the wavelets extend < 2:186x  12:864 x 2 ½10; 2;
initially over the all input domain. The choice of the f ðxÞ ¼ 4:246x x 2 ½2; 0; :
:
weights (a, c) is less critical for wavelet network. They 10eð0:005x0:5Þ sinðxð0:03xþ0:7ÞÞ x 2 ½0; 10
are initialized to interval 0 and 1. ð20Þ
4.2 Stopping conditions for training
Systems shows different characteristic for different
input domains. The domain of the x data is trans-
Parameters of the wavelet networks are trained during
formed into [ – 1, 1]. The learning procedure is applied
learning phase for approximation the target function.
on this domain. The number of training sequence is 200
Gradient methods have been applied for adjustable
samples which is uniformly distributed in the interval
parameters. When variation of gradient and parame-
of interest. Figure 8 shows static process and model
ters reaches a lower bound or the number of iterations
output.
reaches a fixed maximum, then system training is
These results were obtained using a wavelet network
stopped.
with ten neurons. Learning iteration is 3,000.
Momentum coefficient was selected 0.9. Training mean
5 Dynamic system modeling using wavelet network
square error (TMSE) is 5.6699 · 10–4. TMSE is com-
puted using (21).
Dynamic system identification problems consist of
three groups; parallel, serial-parallel and inverse sys-
tem identification models. In this study, serial-parallel 1X N
TMSE ¼ ðyp ðnÞ  yn Þ2 ð21Þ
identification model has been used as shown in Fig. 7. N n¼1
This structure does not use feedback. Real system
outputs have been used to predict of the future system where N is the number of inputs.
outputs. So that stability and approximation of the
network are guaranteed.
6.2 Example 2
6 Simulations
This example shows approximation of two variable
6.1 Example 1 functions [6]. Equation (22) shows the function.

For the static system modeling (20) has been used [20]. f ðx1 ;x2 Þ ¼ ðx21  x22 Þsinð0:5x1 Þ  106 x1 ;x2 6 10: ð22Þ

Fig. 7 Dynamic system

modeling with wavelet
network

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Neural Comput & Applic (2007) 16:433–441 439

Fig. 8 Nonlinear static model and process outputs

Fig. 10 Nonlinear model and process output

yðkÞ ¼ f ðyp ðk  1Þ; yp ðk  2Þ; . . . ; yp ðk  Ns Þ;

uðk  1Þ; . . . ; uðk  Ne ÞÞ: ð23Þ

Inputs are past outputs of the process (yp) and the

external inputs u for (23). f(
) is a unknown nonlinear
function, which is to be approximated by a wavelet
network (Y). For the dynamic system modeling we use
(24) [10].

yp ðkÞ ¼ f ðyp ðk  1Þ;yp ðk  2Þ;uðk  1ÞÞ

24 þ yp ðk  1Þ
¼ yp ðk  1Þ
30
Fig. 9 Nonlinear process output uðk  1Þ2
 0:8 yp ðk  2Þ þ 0:5uðk  1Þ ð24Þ
1 þ uðk  1Þ2

The function output is on the domain [ – 1, 1] by yðkÞ ¼ Wðyðk  1Þ; yðk  2Þ; uðk  1Þ; hÞ:
normalization. The input sequence is constituted with
random amplitude in the range [ – 10, 10] · [ – 10, 10] The input and output sequence for training consists of
for training. Figure 9 shows the process for training. pulses with random amplitude in the range [ – 5, 5] and
Process was learned with 200 training samples.
Wavelet network has seven wavelets for Fig. 12 as test
phase. Learning iteration is 1,000. Momentum is se-
lected 0.07, TMSE is 0.0011. Model and process output
is shown in Fig. 10.

6.3 Example 3

For dynamic system modeling second-order nonlinear

function is used. The input sequence is {u(n)} and the
measured process output is {yp(n)}. As in the static
case, the aim is to fit f(
) by a wavelet network.

yp ðkÞ ¼ f ðyp ðk  1Þ; yp ðk  2Þ; . . . ; yp ðk  Ns Þ;

uðk  1Þ; . . . ; uðk  Ne ÞÞ Fig. 11 Input sequence for system used in Sect. 6.3

123
440
Fig. 12 Output sequence for system used in Sect. 6.3
Fig. 13 Nonlinear dynamic model and process output
with random duration between 1 and 20 sampling
periods (Figs. 11, 12, respectively).
Simulation result is shown in Fig. 13. Wavelet net-
work has five wavelets in Fig. 13 as test phase. Learn-
ing iteration is 4,000. Momentum was selected 0.3.
TMSE is 3.02 · 10–2.
7 Conclusions
Wavelet networks are an alternative to neural net-
works for nonlinear function learning. Wavelets show
local characteristic so the initial values of translations
and dilations requires more care than the initial value
of the weights. If selecting initial values of the trans-
lation and the dilation properly, training time is shorter
than neural networks. The architecture of a wavelet
network is exactly specified by the number of wavelets
required for a given classification or regression appli-
cation. The optimal wavelet network structure is
achieved the best approximation and prediction capa-
bility. In this study, it has been presented that wavelet
networks can be used for system modeling and how to
123
Neural Comput & Applic (2007) 16:433–441
train this kind of networks with appropriate initializa-
tion of the translation and dilation parameters. In this
study serial-parallel identification model has been used
to learn nonlinear function. This structure does not use
feedback. Real system outputs have been used for
prediction of the future system outputs. So that sta-
bility and approximation of the network is guaranteed.
Quadratic cost function has been used for error mini-
mization. Gaussian-based mother wavelet function has
been utilized. Because generally this function has been
preferred for these kinds of studies and it has universal
approximation properties. As an example, nonlinear
static and dynamic functions have been examined using
wavelet network for function learning.
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