Least Squares and Kalman Filtering

Questions: Email me, namrata@ece.gatech.edu

Least Squares and Kalman Filtering 1

 Recall: Weighted Least Squares

• y = Hx + e

• Minimize
4
J(x) = (y − Hx)T W (y − Hx) = ||y − Hx||2W (1)

Solution:

x̂ = (H T W H)−1 H T W y (2)

• Given that E[e] = 0 and E[eeT ] = V ,

Min. Variance Unbiased Linear Estimator of x: choose W = V −1 in (2)
Min. Variance of a vector: variance in any direction is minimized

Least Squares and Kalman Filtering 2

 Recall: Proof

• Given x̂ = Ly, find L, s.t. E[Ly] = E[LHx] = E[x], so LH = I

• Let L0 = (H T V −1 H)−1 H T V −1
• Error variance E[(x − x̂)(x − x̂)T ]

E[(x − x̂)(x − x̂)T ] = E[(x − LHx − Le)(x − LHX − Le)T ]

= E[LeeT LT ] = LV LT

Say L = L − L0 + L0 . Here LH = I, L0 H = I, so (L − L0 )H = 0

LV LT = L0 V LT0 + (L − L0 )V (L − L0 )T + 2L0 V (L − L0 )T
= L0 V LT0 + (L − L0 )V (L − L0 )T + (H T V −1 H)−1 H T (L − L0 )T
= L0 V LT0 + (L − L0 )V (L − L0 )T ≥ L0 V LT0

Thus L0 is the optimal estimator (Note: ≥ for matrices)

Least Squares and Kalman Filtering 3

 Regularized Least Squares

• Minimize

J(x) = (x − x0 )T Π−1 T
0 (x − x0 ) + (y − Hx) W (y − Hx) (3)

0 4 0 4
x = x − x0 , y = y − Hx0
J(x) = x0T Π−1
0 x0
+ y 0T
W y 0

= zM −1z  
4 0 I
z =  −  x0
y0 H
 
4 Π−1 0
M =  0 
0 W

Least Squares and Kalman Filtering 4

    
0 I
• Solution: Use least squares formula with ỹ =  , H̃ =  ,
y0 H
W̃ = M

Get:

x̂ = x0 + (Π−1 T
0 + H W H)
−1 T
H W (y − Hx0 )

• Advantage: improves condition number of H T H, incorporate prior

knowledge about distance from x0

Least Squares and Kalman Filtering 5

 Recursive Least Squares

• When number of equations much larger than number of variables

– Storage
– Invert big matrices
– Getting data sequentially
• Use a recursive algorithm
At step i − 1, have x̂i−1 : minimizer of
(x − x0 )T Π−1 2
0 (x − x0 ) + ||Hi−1 x − Yi−1 ||Wi−1 , Yi−1 = [y1 , ...yi−1 ]
T

Find x̂i : minimizer of (x − x0 )T Π−1

0 (x − x0 ) + ||Hi x − Yi ||2Wi ,
 
Hi−1
Hi =   (hi is a row vector), Yi = [y1 , ...yi ]T (column vector)
hi

Least Squares and Kalman Filtering 6

 For simplicity of notation, assume x0 = 0 and Wi = I.

HiT Hi T
= Hi−1 Hi−1 + hTi hi
x̂i = (Π−1
0 + H T
i H i )−1 T
Hi Yi
= (Π−1
0 + H T
i−1 H i−1 + h T
i h i ) −1
(H T
i−1 Y i−1 + h T
i yi )

Define

Pi = (Π−1 T
0 + Hi Hi )
−1
, P−1 = Π0
So Pi−1 −1
= Pi−1 + hTi hi

Use Matrix Inversion identity:

(A + BCD)−1 = A−1 + A−1 B(C −1 + DA−1 B)−1 DA−1
Pi−1 hTi hi Pi−1
Pi = Pi−1 −
1 + hi Pi−1 hTi

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 x̂0 = 0
x̂i = Pi HiT Yi
Pi−1 hTi hi Pi−1 T T
= [Pi−1 − T
][H i−1 Yi−1 + h i yi ]
1 + hi Pi−1 hi
T Pi−1 hTi T
= Pi−1 Hi−1 Yi−1 − T
h i P i−1 H i−1 Yi−1
1 + hi Pi−1 hi
hi Pi−1 hTi
+Pi−1 hTi (1 − T
)yi
1 + hi Pi−1 hi
Pi−1 hTi
= x̂i−1 + T
(yi − hi x̂i−1 )
1 + hi Pi−1 hi

1/2 1/2
If Wi 6= I, this modifies to (replace yi by wi yi & hi by wi hi ):

x̂i = x̂i−1 + Pi−1 hTi (wi −1 + hi Pi−1 hTi )−1 (yi − hi x̂i−1 )

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 Here we considered yi to be a scalar and hi to be a row vector.
In general: yi can be a k-dim vector, hi will be a matrix with k rows

RLS with Forgetting factor

Pi
Weight older data with smaller weight J(x) = j=1 (yj − hj x)2 β(i, j)
Exponential forgetting: β(i, j) = λi−j , λ<1
Moving average: β(i, j) = 0 if |i − j| > ∆ and β(i, j) = 1 otherwise

Least Squares and Kalman Filtering 9

 Connection with Kalman Filtering

The above is also the Kalman filter estimate of the state for the following
system model:

xi = xi−1
yi = hi xi + vi , vi ∼ N (0, Ri ), Ri = wi−1 (4)

Least Squares and Kalman Filtering 10

 Kalman Filter

RLS was for static data: estimate the signal x better and better as more and
more data comes in, e.g. estimating the mean intensity of an object from a
video sequence
RLS with forgetting factor assumes slowly time varying x

Kalman filter: if the signal is time varying, and we know (statistically) the
dynamical model followed by the signal: e.g. tracking a moving object

x0 ∼ N (0, Π0 )
xi = Fi xi−1 + vx,i , vx,i ∼ N (0, Qi )

The observation model is as before:

yi = hi xi + vi , vi ∼ N (0, Ri )

Least Squares and Kalman Filtering 11

 Goal: get the best (minimum mean square error) estimate of xi from Yi

Cost: J(x̂i ) = E[(xi − x̂i )2 |Yi ]

Minimizer: conditional mean x̂i = E[xi |Yi ]

This is also the MAP estimate, i.e. x̂i also maximizes p(xi |Yi )

Least Squares and Kalman Filtering 12

 Kalman filtering algorithm

At i = 0, x̂0 = 0, P0 = Π0 .

For any i, assume that we know x̂i−1 = E[xi |Yi−1 ]. Then

4
E[xi |Yi−1 ] = Fi x̂i−1 = x̂i|i−1
4
V ar(xi |Yi−1 ) = Fi Pi−1 FiT + Qi = Pi|i−1 (5)

This is the prediction step

Least Squares and Kalman Filtering 13

 Filtering or correction step: Now xi |Yi−1 & yi |xi , Yi−1 jointly Gaussian

xi |Yi−1 ∼ N (x̂i|i−1 , Pi|i−1 )

yi |xi , Yi−1 = yi |xi ∼ N (hi xi , Ri )

Using formula for the conditional distribution of Z1 |Z2 when Z1 and Z2 are
jointly Gaussian,

E[xi |Yi ] = x̂i|i−1 + Pi|i−1 hTi (Ri + hi Pi|i−1 hTi )−1 (yi − hi x̂i|i−1 )
V ar(xi |Yi ) = Pi|i−1 − Pi|i−1 hTi hi Pi|i−1 (Ri + hi Pi|i−1 hTi )−1

x̂i = E[xi |Yi ] and Pi = V ar(xi |Yi )

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 Summarizing the algorithm

x̂i|i−1 = Fi x̂i−1
Pi|i−1 = Fi Pi−1 FiT + Qi
x̂i = x̂i|i−1 + Pi|i−1 hTi (Ri + hi Pi|i−1 hTi )−1 (yi − hi x̂i|i−1 )
Pi = Pi|i−1 − Pi|i−1 hTi hi Pi|i−1 (Ri + hi Pi|i−1 hTi )−1

For Fi = I, Qi = 0, get the RLS algorithm.

Least Squares and Kalman Filtering 15

 Example Applications

• RLS:
– adaptive noise cancelation, given a noisy signal dn assumed to be
given by dn = uTn w + vn , get the best estimate of the weight w.
Here yn = dn , hn = un , x = w
– channel equalization using a training sequence
– Object intensity estimation: x = intensity, yi = vector of intensities of
object region in frame i, hi = 1m (column vector of m ones),

• Kalman filter: Track a moving object (estimate its location and velocity
at each time)

Least Squares and Kalman Filtering 16

 Suggested Reading

• Chapters 2, 3 & 9 of Linear Estimation, by Kailath, Sayed, Hassibi

• Chapters 4 & 5 of An Introduction to Signal Detection and Estimation,

by Vincent Poor

Least Squares and Kalman Filtering 17