Selecting radial basis function network centers with recursive orthogonal least squares training

Recursive orthogonal least squares (ROLS) is a numerically robust method for solving for the output layer weights of a radial basis function (RBF) network, and requires less computer memory than the batch alternative. In the paper, the use of ROLS is extended to selecting the centers of an RBF network. It is shown that the information available in an ROLS algorithm after network training can be used to sequentially select centers to minimize the network output error. This provides efficient methods for network reduction to achieve smaller architectures with acceptable accuracy and without retraining. Two selection methods are developed, forward and backward. The methods are illustrated in applications of RBF networks to modeling a nonlinear time series and a real multiinput-multioutput chemical process. The final network models obtained achieve acceptable accuracy with significant reductions in the number of required centers.