A novel compact piecewise-linear representation: Research Articles

A new compact MAX representation for 2-D continuous piecewise-linear (PWL) functions is developed in this paper. The representation is promising since it can be easily generalized into higher dimensions. We also establish the explicit functional form of basis function and demonstrate that the proposed basis function is the elementary ‘building block’ from which a fully general 2-D PWL function can be constructed. In addition, we reveal the relationship of basis function with minimal degenerate intersection and Hinging Hyperplane, which shows that the MAX model can unify Chua's canonical expression, Li's representation, lattice PWL function and Bremann's Hinging Finding Algorithm into one common theoretical framework. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Project jointly supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(60374061) and 973 program of China (2002CB312200).