Joint state and parameter robust estimation of stochastic nonlinear systems

Successful implementation of many control strategies is mainly based on accurate knowledge of the system and its parameters. Besides the stochastic nature of the systems, nonlinearity is one more feature that may be found in almost all physical systems. The application of extended Kalman filter for the joint state and parameter estimation of stochastic nonlinear systems is well known and widely spread. It is a known fact that in measurements, there are inconsistent observations with the largest part of population of observations (outliers). The presence of outliers can significantly reduce the efficiency of linear estimation algorithms derived on the assumptions that observations have Gaussian distributions. Hence, synthesis of robust algorithms is very important. Because of increased practical value in robust filtering as well as the rate of convergence, the modified extended Masreliez–Martin filter presents the natural frame for realization of the joint state and parameter estimator of nonlinear stochastic systems. The strong consistency is proved using the methodology of an associated ODE system. The behaviour of the new approach to joint estimation of states and unknown parameters of nonlinear systems in the case when measurements have non‐Gaussian distributions is illustrated by intensive simulations. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust unscented Kalman filter with adaptation of process and measurement noise covariances

Unscented Kalman filter (UKF) has been extensively used for state estimation of nonlinear stochastic systems, which suffers from performance degradation and even divergence when the noise distribution used in the UKF and the truth in a real system are mismatched. For state estimation of nonlinear stochastic systems with non-Gaussian measurement noise, the Masreliez–Martin extended Kalman filter (EKF) gives better state estimates in relation to the standard EKF. However, the process noise and the measurement noise covariance matrices should be known, which is impractical in applications. This paper presents a robust Masreliez–Martin UKF which can provide reliable state estimates in the presence of both unknown process noise and measurement noise covariance matrices. Two numerical examples involving relative navigation of spacecrafts demonstrate that the proposed filter can provide improved state estimation performance over existing robust filtering approaches. Vision-aided robot arm tracking experiments are also provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Filtering of systems with nonlinear measurements with an application to target tracking

This paper studies the problem of recursive state estimation of stochastic linear systems with nonlinear measurements. The main idea is to rewrite the measurement map in a linear form by considering, as system output, a vector of “virtual” measurements. The result is a linear system with a non‐Gaussian and nonstationary output noise. State estimation is therefore obtained using a Kalman filter or, alternatively, a quadratic filter, suitably designed for non‐Gaussian systems. This work provides two sufficient conditions for the application of the virtual measurement approach and shows its effectiveness in the case of the maneuvering target tracking problem.     

Modified particle filter and Gaussian filter with packet dropouts

This technical note is concerned with the nonlinear filtering for networked control systems. First, the modified particle filter algorithm with intermittent observations is proposed and the conditional Cramér‐Rao lower (CRL) bound with packet dropouts for nonlinear non‐Gaussian system is derived. Second, an upper bound for the CRL bound of the Gaussian filter with packet losses is obtained by constructing a linear Gaussian‐Markovian networked system because of the complexity in direct analysis and computation. Third, a sufficient condition is given for the bounded expectation of the CRL bound, which is the necessary condition for bounded mean‐square error covariance. Finally, an example illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed filter.     

Identification of time‐varying OE models in presence of non‐Gaussian noise: Application to pneumatic servo drives

Intensive research in the field of mathematical modeling of pneumatic servo drives has shown that their mathematical models are nonlinear in which many important details cannot be included in the model. Owing the influence of the combination of heat coefficient, unknown discharge coefficient, and change of temperature, it was supposed that parameters of the pneumatic cylinder are random (stochastic parameters). On the other side, it has been well known that the nonlinear model can be approximated by a linear model with time‐varying parameters. Due to the aforementioned reasons, it can be assumed that the pneumatic cylinder model is a linear stochastic model with variable parameters. In practical conditions, in measurements, there are rare, inconsistent observations with the largest part of population of observations (outliers). Therefore, synthesis of robust algorithms is of primary interest. In this paper, the robust recursive algorithm for output error models with time‐varying parameters is proposed. The convergence property of the proposed robust algorithm is analyzed using the methodology of an associated ordinary differential equation system. Because ad hoc selection of model orders leads to overparameterization or parsimony problem, the robust Akaike's criterion is proposed to overcome these problems. By determining the least favorable probability density for a given class of probability distribution represents a base for design of the robust version of Akaike's criterion. The behavior of the proposed robust identification algorithm is considered through intensive simulations that demonstrate the superiority of the robust algorithm in relation to the linear algorithms (derived under an assumption that the stochastic disturbance has a Gaussian distribution). The good practical values of the proposed robust algorithm to identification of the pneumatic cylinder are illustrated by experimental results. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gaussian approximate filter for stochastic dynamic systems with randomly delayed measurements and colored measurement noises带随机延迟量测和有色量测噪声随机动态系统的高斯近似滤波器

In this paper, a new Gaussian approximate (GA) filter for stochastic dynamic systems with both one-step randomly delayed measurements and colored measurement noises is presented. For linear systems, a Kalman filter can be obtained to include one-step randomly delayed measurements and colored measurement noises. On the other hand, for nonlinear stochastic dynamic systems, different GA filters can be developed which exploit numerical methods to compute Gaussian weighted integrals involved in the proposed Bayesian solution. Existing GA filter with one-step randomly delayed measurements and existing GA filter with colored measurement noises are special cases of the proposed GA filter. The efficiency and superiority of the proposed method are illustrated in a numerical example concerning a target tracking problem.     

鲁棒高斯和集合卡尔曼滤波及其在纯角度跟踪中的应用

针对纯角度目标跟踪中量测信息易受异常值和非高斯噪声干扰的问题,提出了一种新的非线性滤波算法–鲁棒高斯和集合卡尔曼滤波(robust Gaussian-sum ensemble Kalman filter,RGSEnKF)算法.首先,采用Huber技术重塑集合卡尔曼滤波的量测更新过程,能够有效地处理量测中的异常值.随后,将改进的集合卡尔曼滤波在高斯和框架下进行扩展,得到RGSEnKF算法,可以进一步解决受非高斯噪声干扰的非线性系统的状态估计问题.此外,新算法中包含距离参数化初始化策略和高斯分量融合策略.前者是为了减小纯角度跟踪中距离信息不可观测的影响,而后者可以避免高斯分量数目随时间不断增长.大量仿真结果验证了新算法的有效性和鲁棒性.     

基于EKF的集中式融合估计研究

以一类非线性多传感器动态系统为对象, 基于扩展Kalman滤波器(Extend Kalman filter, EKF)介绍三种典型非线性集中式融合算法, 并以此为基础研究部分线性动态系统融合理论在非线性系统中的推广与完善. 首先,利用EKF的一种信息滤波器形式(Extend information filter, EIF)给出测量值扩维融合、测量值加权融合和顺序滤波融合算法公式, 进而研究三种非线性融合算法的估计性能比较以及测量值融合更新次序是否满足可交换性. 结果表明: 当各传感器的测量特性相同时, 集中式测量值扩维和测量值加权融合算法的估计精度功能等价;非线性顺序滤波融合与其他两种融合算法之间不再具备线性多传感器系统中估计功能的完全等价特性;在融合精度不变前提下非线性顺序滤波融合中, 各传感器观测更新次序不再完全满足可交换性. 4个基于纯方位目标跟踪的数值仿真被用来验证文中所得结论的有效性和正确性.     

Adaptive Gaussian filters for nonlinear state estimation with one-step randomly delayed measurements

This paper proposes new algorithms of adaptive Gaussian filters for nonlinear state estimation with maximum one-step randomly delayed measurements. The unknown random delay is modeled as a Bernoulli random variable with the latency probability known a priori. However, a contingent situation has been considered in this work when the measurement noise statistics remain partially unknown. Due to unavailability of the complete knowledge of measurement noise statistics, the unknown measurement noise covariance matrix is estimated along with states following: (i) variational Bayesian approach, (ii) maximum likelihood estimation. The adaptation algorithms are mathematically derived following both of the above approaches. Subsequently, a general framework for adaptive Gaussian filter is presented with which variants of adaptive nonlinear filters can be formulated using different rules of numerical approximation for Gaussian integrals. This paper presents a few of such filters, viz., adaptive cubature Kalman filter, adaptive cubature quadrature Kalman filter with their higher degree variants, adaptive unscented Kalman filter, and adaptive Gauss–Hermite filter, and demonstrates the comparative performance analysis with the help of a nontrivial Bearing only tracking problem in simulation. Additionally, the paper carries out relative performance comparison between maximum likelihood estimation and variational Bayesian approaches for adaptation using Monte Carlo simulation. The proposed algorithms are also validated with the help of an off-line harmonics estimation problem with real data.     

Non-linear estimation with uncertain-delayed observations

This paper considers the state estimation of linear discrete-time systems with uncertain-delayed observations. Using a Gaussian approximation, a sub-optimal, recursive, nonlinear estimator is derived, and by means of a simulation study its performance is compared with that of the best linear filter based on the same observation model.     

Fast High‐Dimensional Filtering Using the Permutohedral Lattice

Many useful algorithms for processing images and geometry fall under the general framework of high‐dimensional Gaussian filtering. This family of algorithms includes bilateral filtering and non‐local means. We propose a new way to perform such filters using the permutohedral lattice, which tessellates high‐dimensional space with uniform simplices. Our algorithm is the first implementation of a high‐dimensional Gaussian filter that is both linear in input size and polynomial in dimensionality. Furthermore it is parameter‐free, apart from the filter size, and achieves a consistently high accuracy relative to ground truth (> 45 dB). We use this to demonstrate a number of interactive‐rate applications of filters in as high as eight dimensions.     

一种带多步随机延迟量测高斯滤波器的一般框架解

提出了一种适用于线性和非线性系统的带多步随机延迟量测高斯滤波器的一般框架解. 为了完成状态的递归更新估计, 噪声向量和先前时刻状态向量被扩展到当前时刻状态向量中. 然后基于贝叶斯方法推导了扩展后状态向量的一般框架解. 对于非线性系统, 通过利用不同的数值计算方法计算贝叶斯解中的高斯加权积分可以推导获得不同的高斯近似滤波器. 最后本文利用三阶球径容积准则来实施提出的方法, 并通过量测被随机延迟多步的目标跟踪模型对所提出的方法进行了仿真, 仿真结果验证了提出方法的有效性和优点.     

分维自适应稀疏网格积分非线性滤波器

针对含加性高斯噪声的非线性离散系统,提出了可分别根据各维状态及量测方程的非线性函数特性来确定采样点及其权重的积分滤波器.设计了基于嵌入式高斯采样积分和稀疏网格法则的自适应多变量采样积分方法,可在匹配函数高阶泰勒展开项时,利用低阶采样点,提出了高效的数据结构和遍历算法,便于采用该积分方法分别估计系统状态/量测的预测均值和协方差矩阵.该滤波器既能根据各维非线性函数的特性确定采样点,又实现了对采样值和权重的完全复用,保证了算法效率.理论分析和仿真表明,该滤波算法中自适应调整的运算量小于计算非线性函数采样值.该滤波器与无迹卡尔曼滤波相比,提高了滤波精度,与固定形式的稀疏网格滤波器相比,提高了采样效率,且该方法为两者的广义形式.仿真实验也验证了状态估计的精确性和函数采样的高效性.     

Optimal linear filtering over observations with multiple delays

In this paper, the optimal filtering problem for a linear system over observations with multiple delays is treated proceeding from the general expression for the stochastic Ito differential of the optimal estimate and its variance. As a result, the optimal filtering equations similar to the traditional Kalman–Bucy ones are obtained in the form dual to the Smith predictor, commonly used for robust control design in time‐delay systems. In the example, the obtained optimal filter over observations with multiple delays is verified for a sample system and compared with the best Kalman–Bucy filter available for delayed measurements. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust fixed-lag smoother for linear systems including outliers in the system and observation noises

We develop a robust fixed-lag smoother for linear discrete-time systems having outliers both in the process and the observation noises. By modifying the system equation to a linear regression model, a robust Kalman filter and a robust fixed-lag smoother are derived using an M-estimate. Then the robust smoother is constructed using a robust Kalman filter and two robust sub-smoothers; the outliers in the observation noise are detected by filtering, and those in the system noise are detected by smoothing. Monte Carlo simulations are also presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.     

State estimation of nonlinear dynamic systems using weighted variance-based adaptive particle swarm optimization

New heuristic filters are proposed for state estimation of nonlinear dynamic systems based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) and differential evolution (DE). The methodology converts state estimation problem into dynamic optimization to find the best estimate recursively. In the proposed strategy the particle number is adaptively set based on the weighted variance of the particles. To have a filter with minimal parameter settings, PSO with exponential distribution (PSO-E) is selected in conjunction with jDE to self-adapt the other control parameters. The performance of the proposed adaptive evolutionary algorithms i.e. adaptive PSO-E, adaptive DE and adaptive jDE is studied through a comparative study on a suite of well-known uni- and multi-modal benchmark functions. The results indicate an improved performance of the adaptive algorithms relative to original simple versions. Further, the performance of the proposed heuristic filters generally called adaptive particle swarm filters (APSF) or adaptive differential evolution filters (ADEF) are evaluated using different linear (nonlinear)/Gaussian (non-Gaussian) test systems. Comparison of the results to those of the extended Kalman filter, unscented Kalman filter, and particle filter indicate that the adopted strategy fulfills the essential requirements of accuracy for nonlinear state estimation.     

Discrete-time filtering for nonlinear polynomial systems over linear observations

This paper designs a discrete-time filter for nonlinear polynomial systems driven by additive white Gaussian noises over linear observations. The solution is obtained by computing the time-update and measurement-update equations for the state estimate and the error covariance matrix. A closed form of this filter is obtained by expressing the conditional expectations of polynomial terms as functions of the estimate and the error covariance. As a particular case, a third-degree polynomial is considered to obtain the finite-dimensional filtering equations. Numerical simulations are performed for a third-degree polynomial system and an induction motor model. Performance of the designed filter is compared with the extended Kalman one to verify its effectiveness.     

Optimal state estimation for stochastic systems: an informationtheoretic approach

In this paper, we examine the problem of optimal state estimation or filtering in stochastic systems using an approach based on information theoretic measures. In this setting, the traditional minimum mean-square measure is compared with information theoretic measures, Kalman filtering theory is reexamined, and some new interpretations are offered. We show that for a linear Gaussian system, the Kalman filter is the optimal filter not only for the mean-square error measure, but for several information theoretic measures which are introduced in this work. For nonlinear systems, these same measures generally are in conflict with each other, and the feedback control policy has a dual role with regard to regulation and estimation. For linear stochastic systems with general noise processes, a lower bound on the achievable mutual information between the estimation error and the observation are derived. The properties of an optimal (probing) control law and the associated optimal filter, which achieve this lower bound, and their relationships are investigated. It is shown that for a linear stochastic system with an affine linear filter for the homogeneous system, under some reachability and observability conditions, zero mutual information between estimation error and observations can be achieved only when the system is Gaussian     

A Robust Solution to the Stereo-Vision-Based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping Problem with Steady and Moving Landmarks

The problem of visual simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is examined in this paper using recently developed ideas and algorithms from modern robust control and estimation theory. A nonlinear model for a stereo-vision-based sensor is derived that leads to nonlinear measurements of the landmark coordinates along with optical flow-based measurements of the relative robot–landmark velocity. Using a novel analytical measurement transformation, the nonlinear SLAM problem is converted into the linear domain and solved using a robust linear filter. Actually, the linear filter is guaranteed stable and the SLAM state estimation error is bounded within an ellipsoidal set. A mathematically rigorous stability proof is given that holds true even when the landmarks move in accordance with an unknown control input. No similar results are available for the commonly employed extended Kalman filter, which is known to exhibit divergence and inconsistency characteristics in practice. A number of illustrative examples are given using both simulated and real vision data that further validate the proposed method.     

高斯渐进贝叶斯滤波器

渐进贝叶斯方法将先验分布到后验分布的演化描述为一阶动态系统,通过在伪时间上连续地引入观测信息实现后验状态估计.该方法的一般形式解,即动态系统的时间导数,是难以得到的.本文提出一种高斯型渐进贝叶斯滤波器.首先在线性高斯条件下推导了时间导数的解析解;然后证明了在该条件下,由该解析解确定的一阶动态系统与常量状态估计的Kalman-Bucy滤波器是一致的,且由此导出的高斯渐进贝叶斯滤波器与卡尔曼滤波器是一致的.最后利用一阶Taylor展开推导了滤波器在非线性高斯条件下的近似解表达式,并采用Monte Carlo方法给出了具体实现方法.通过若干仿真算例表明,新滤波器具有较高的精度,且在一定精度条件下的时间复杂度低于一般粒子滤波器.