Input-to-state stability of positive delayed neural networks via impulsive control

This paper is concerned with the positivity and impulsive stabilization of equilibrium points of delayed neural networks (DNNs) subject to bounded disturbances. With the aid of the continuous dependence theorem for impulsive delay differential equations, a relaxed positivity condition is derived, which allows the neuron interconnection matrix to be Metzler if the activation functions satisfy a certain condition. The notion of input-to-state stability (ISS) is introduced to characterize internal global stability and disturbance attenuation performance for impulsively controlled DNNs. The ISS property is analyzed by employing a time-dependent max-separable Lyapunov function which is able to capture the positivity characterization and hybrid structure of the considered DNNs. A ranged dwell-time-dependent ISS condition is obtained, which allows to design an impulsive control law via partial state variables. As a byproduct, an improved global exponential stability criterion for impulse-free positive DNNs is obtained. The applicability of the achieved results is illustrated through three numerical examples.