# odeint Convenience function¶

scikits.odes.odeint.odeint(rhsfun, tout, y0, method='bdf', **options)

Integrate a system of ordinary differential equations. odeint is a wrapper around the ode class, as a confenience function to quickly integrate a system of ode. Solves the initial value problem for stiff or non-stiff systems of first order ode’s:

rhs = dy/dt = fun(t, y)

where y can be a vector, then rhsfun must be a function computing rhs with signature:

rhsfun(t, y, rhs)

storing the computated dy/dt in the rhs array passed to the function

Parameters:
• rhsfun (callable(t, y, out)) – Computes the derivative at dy/dt in terms of t and y, and stores in out
• y0 (array) – Initial condition on y (can be a vector).
• t (array) – A sequence of time points for which to solve for y. The initial value point should be the first element of this sequence.
• method (string, solution method to use.) –

Available are all the ode class solvers as well as some convenience shorthands:

Method Meaning
bdf This uses the ‘cvode’ solver in default from, which is a variable step, variable coefficient Backward Differentiation Formula solver, good for stiff ODE. Newton iterations are used to solve the nonlinear system.
admo This uses the ‘cvode’ solver with option lmm_type=’ADAMS’, which is a variable step Adams-Moulton method (linear multistep method), good for non-stiff ODE. Functional iterations are used to solve the nonlinear system.
rk5 This uses the ‘dopri5’ solver, which is a variable step Runge-Kutta method of order (4)5 (use for non-stiff ODE)
rk8 This uses the ‘dop853’ solver, which is a variable step Runge-Kutta method of order 8(5,3)

For educational purposes, you can also access following methods:

Method Meaning
beuler This is the Implicit Euler (backward Euler) method (order 1), which is obtained via the ‘bdf’ method, setting the order option to 1, setting large tolerances, and fixing the stepsize. Use option ‘step’ to change stepsize, default: step=0.05. Use option ‘rtol’ and ‘atol’ to use more strict tolerances Note: this is not completely the backward Euler method, as the cvode solver has added control options!
trapz This is the Trapezoidal Rule method (order 2), which is obtained via the ‘admo’ method, setting option order to 2, setting large tolerances and fixing the stepsize. Use option ‘step’ to change stepsize, default: step=0.05. Use option ‘rtol’ and ‘atol’ to use more strict tolerances Note: The cvode solver might change the order to 1 internally in which case this becomes beuler method. Set atol, rtol options as strict as possible.

You can also access the solvers of ode via their names:

Method Meaning
cvode This uses the ‘cvode’ solver
dopri5 This uses the ‘dopri5’ solver
dop853 This uses the ‘dop853’ solver
• options (extra solver options, optional) – Every solver has it’s own extra options, see the ode class and the details of the solvers available there to know the options possible per solver
Returns:

solution – A single named tuple is returned containing the result of the integration.

Field Meaning
flag An integer flag
values Named tuple with fields t and y
errors Named tuple with fields t and y
roots Named tuple with fields t and y
tstop Named tuple with fields t and y
message String with message in case of an error

Return type:

named tuple

ode()
a more object-oriented integrator in scikits.odes
dae()
a solver for differential-algebraic equations in scikits.odes
quad()
for finding the area under a curve, part of scipy.

Examples

The second order differential equation for the angle theta of a pendulum acted on by gravity with friction can be written:

$\theta''(t) + b \theta'(t) + c \sin(\theta(t)) = 0$

where b and c are positive constants, and a prime (‘) denotes a derivative. To solve this equation with odeint, we must first convert it to a system of first order equations. By defining the angular velocity omega(t) = theta'(t), we obtain the system:

$\theta'(t) = \omega(t) \omega'(t) = -b \omega(t) - c \sin(\theta(t))$

We assume the constants are b = 0.25 and c = 5.0:

>>> b = 0.25
>>> c = 5.0


Let y be the vector [theta, omega]. We implement this system in python as:

>>> def pend(t, y, out):
...     theta, omega = y
...     out[:] = [omega, -b*omega - c*np.sin(theta)]
...


In case you want b and c easily changable, make pend a class method, and consider attributes b and c accessible via self.b and self.c. For initial conditions, we assume the pendulum is nearly vertical with theta(0) = pi - 0.1, and it initially at rest, so omega(0) = 0. Then the vector of initial conditions is

>>> y0 = [np.pi - 0.1, 0.0]


We generate a solution 101 evenly spaced samples in the interval 0 <= t <= 10. So our array of times is

>>> t = np.linspace(0, 10, 101)


Call odeint to generate the solution.

>>> from scikits.odes.odeint import odeint
>>> sol = odeint(pend, t, y0)


The solution is a named tuple sol. sol.values.y is an array with shape (101, 2). The first column is theta(t), and the second is omega(t). The following code plots both components.

>>> import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
>>> plt.plot(sol.values.t, sol.values.y[:, 0], 'b', label='theta(t)')
>>> plt.plot(sol.values.t, sol.values.y[:, 1], 'g', label='omega(t)')
>>> plt.legend(loc='best')
>>> plt.xlabel('t')
>>> plt.grid()
>>> plt.show()