Introduction to Particle Filter
Introduction to Recursive Bayesian Filters
Let's introduce the general formula of Recursive Bayesian Filters for Hidden Markov Processes
General Recursive Bayesian Filter
The elements of the formula are the following ones
$ P(x_{t} | y_{1:t}) $ State PDF given a set of Observations in different times
$ \alpha $ Normalization Term
$ P(y_{t} | x_{t}) $ Observation PDF given a certain State, also called Likelihood
$ P(x_{t} | x_{t-1}) $ Process Dynamic, it is to say the PDF of the State at a certain time, given the State at the previous instant
$ P(x_{t-1} | y_{t-1}) $ State PDF calculated at the previous iteration (it explains why this is called a Recursive Filter)
In general the integral in the abovementioned formula has no closed form solution (except in very specific situations) so a numerical approximation is needed
The Particle Filter is a Monte Carlo Method to compute a numerical approximation for this integral relying on the concept of particle
The term Particle designate a Possible System State.
In order to be able to adopt this solution, it is necessary to know
The Particle Filter strategy so is simply as follows
at the beginning of the iteration cycle (recursive filter) a certain amount of Particles is generated, for example by sampling a certain PDF chosen in some way
at every iteration, the particles are evolved according to the System Dynamic thus to be able to numerically estimate the integral
Particle Filter is a Monte Carlo Method to numerically estimate the Integral