Regret-Optimal Filtering
Abstract
We consider the problem of filtering in linear state-space models (e.g., the Kalman filter setting) through the lens of regret optimization. Specifically, we study the problem of causally estimating a desired signal, generated by a linear state-space model driven by process noise, based on noisy observations of a related observation process. We define a novel regret criterion for estimator design as the difference of the estimation error energies between a clairvoyant estimator that has access to all future observations (a so-called smoother) and a causal one that only has access to current and past observations. The regret-optimal estimator is the causal estimator that minimizes the worst-case regret across all bounded-energy noise sequences. We provide a solution for the regret filtering problem at two levels. First, an horizon-independent solution at the operator level is obtained by reducing the regret to the well-known Nehari problem. Secondly, our main result for state-space models is an explicit estimator that achieves the optimal regret. The regret-optimal estimator is represented as a finite-dimensional state-space whose parameters can be computed by solving three Riccati equations and a single Lyapunov equation. We demonstrate the applicability and efficacy of the estimator in a variety of problems and observe that the estimator has average and worst-case performances that are simultaneously close to their optimal values.
BibTeX
@InProceedings{pmlr-v130-sabag21a,
title = { Regret-Optimal Filtering },
author = {Sabag, Oron and Hassibi, Babak},
booktitle = {Proceedings of The 24th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics},
pages = {2629--2637},
year = {2021},
editor = {Banerjee, Arindam and Fukumizu, Kenji},
volume = {130},
series = {Proceedings of Machine Learning Research},
month = {13--15 Apr},
publisher = {PMLR},
pdf = {http://proceedings.mlr.press/v130/sabag21a/sabag21a.pdf},
url = {https://proceedings.mlr.press/v130/sabag21a.html},
abstract = { We consider the problem of filtering in linear state-space models (e.g., the Kalman filter setting) through the lens of regret optimization. Specifically, we study the problem of causally estimating a desired signal, generated by a linear state-space model driven by process noise, based on noisy observations of a related observation process. We define a novel regret criterion for estimator design as the difference of the estimation error energies between a clairvoyant estimator that has access to all future observations (a so-called smoother) and a causal one that only has access to current and past observations. The regret-optimal estimator is the causal estimator that minimizes the worst-case regret across all bounded-energy noise sequences. We provide a solution for the regret filtering problem at two levels. First, an horizon-independent solution at the operator level is obtained by reducing the regret to the well-known Nehari problem. Secondly, our main result for state-space models is an explicit estimator that achieves the optimal regret. The regret-optimal estimator is represented as a finite-dimensional state-space whose parameters can be computed by solving three Riccati equations and a single Lyapunov equation. We demonstrate the applicability and efficacy of the estimator in a variety of problems and observe that the estimator has average and worst-case performances that are simultaneously close to their optimal values. }
}