High-Order Lie Derivatives from Taylor Series in the ADTAYL Package
Numerical Analysis
2026-01-19 v1 Mathematical Software
Numerical Analysis
Abstract
High-order Lie derivatives are essential in nonlinear systems analysis. If done symbolically, their evaluation becomes increasingly expensive as the order increases. We present a compact and efficient numerical approach for computing Lie derivatives of scalar, vector, and covector fields using the MATLAB ADTAYL package. The method exploits a fact noted by R\"obenack: that these derivatives coincide, up to factorial scaling, with the Taylor coefficients of expressions built from a Taylor expansion about a trajectory point and, when required, the associated variational matrix. Computational results for a gantry crane model demonstrate orders of magnitude speedups over symbolic evaluation using the MATLAB Symbolic Math Toolbox.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.10828,
title = {High-Order Lie Derivatives from Taylor Series in the ADTAYL Package},
author = {Nedialko S. Nedialkov and John D. Pryce},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.10828},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
16 pages