An efficient overloaded method for computing derivatives of mathematical functions in MATLAB

Abstract

An object-oriented method is presented that computes without truncation the error derivatives of functions defined by MATLAB computer codes. The method implements forward-mode automatic differentiation via operator overloading in a manner that produces a new MATLAB code that computes the derivatives of the outputs of the original function with respect to the differentiation variables. Because the derivative code has the same input as the original function code, the method can be used recursively to generate derivatives of any order desired. In addition, the approach developed in this article has the feature that the derivatives are generated by simply evaluating the function on an instance of the class, thus making the method straightforward to use while simultaneously enabling differentiation of highly complex functions. A detailed description of the method is presented and the approach is illustrated and shown to be efficient on four examples.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Apr 01, 2013
Source ID
10.1145/2450153.2450155

Entities

People

  • Anil V. Rao
  • Matthew Weinstein
  • Michael A. Patterson

Organizations

  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • Office of Naval Research
  • University of Florida

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Adaptive Control and Estimation with Uncertainty in Dynamic Systems.
  • Computer Science.