Information processing capacity of a single-node reservoir computer : an experimental evaluation

Physical dynamical systems are able to process information in a nontrivial manner. The machine learning paradigm of reservoir computing (RC) provides a suitable framework for information processing in (analog) dynamical systems. The potential of dynamical systems for RC can be quantitatively characterized by the information processing capacity (IPC) measure. Here, we evaluate the IPC measure of a reservoir computer based on a single-analog nonlinear node coupled with delay. We link the extracted IPC measures to the dynamical regime of the reservoir, reporting an experimentally measured nonlinear memory of up to seventh order. In addition, we find a nonhomogeneous distribution of the linear and nonlinear contributions to the IPC as a function of the system operating conditions. Finally, we unveil the role of noise in the IPC of the analog implementation by performing ad hoc numerical simulations. In this manner, we identify the so-called edge of stability as being the most promising operating condition of the experimental implementation for RC purposes in terms of computational power and noise robustness. Similarly, a strong input drive is shown to have beneficial properties, albeit with a reduced memory depth