Gaussian particle filtering

Abstract

Sequential Bayesian estimation for nonlinear dynamic state-space models involves recursive estimation of filtering and predictive distributions of unobserved time varying signals based on noisy observations. This paper introduces a new filter called the Gaussian particle filter1. It is based on the particle filtering concept, and it approximates the posterior distributions by single Gaussians, similar to Gaussian filters like the extended Kalman filter and its variants. It is shown that under the Gaussianity assumption, the Gaussian particle filter is asymptotically optimal in the number of particles and, hence, has much-improved performance and versatility over other Gaussian filters, especially when nontrivial nonlinearities are present. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the versatility and improved performance of the Gaussian particle filter over conventional Gaussian filters and the lower complexity than known particle filters. The use of the Gaussian particle filter as a building block of more complex filters is addressed in a companion paper.