Learning Kalman Policy for Singular Unknown Covariances via Riemannian Regularization

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Bier, Larsen, Talebi, Shahriar
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Bier, Larsen
Talebi, Shahriar
author_facet Bier, Larsen
Talebi, Shahriar
contents Kalman filtering is a cornerstone of estimation theory, yet learning the optimal filter under unknown and potentially singular noise covariances remains a fundamental challenge. In this paper, we revisit this problem through the lens of control--estimation duality and data-driven policy optimization, formulating the learning of the steady-state Kalman gain as a stochastic policy optimization problem directly from measurement data. Our key contribution is a Riemannian regularization that reshapes the optimization landscape, restoring structural properties such as coercivity and gradient dominance. This geometric perspective enables the effective use of first-order methods under significantly relaxed conditions, including unknown and rank-deficient noise covariances. Building on this framework, we develop a computationally efficient algorithm with a data-driven gradient oracle, enabling scalable stochastic implementations. We further establish non-asymptotic convergence and error guarantees enabled by the Riemannian regularization, quantifying the impact of bias and variance in gradient estimates and demonstrating favorable scaling with problem dimension. Numerical results corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and robustness to the choice of stepsize in challenging singular estimation regimes.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_05071
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Learning Kalman Policy for Singular Unknown Covariances via Riemannian Regularization
Bier, Larsen
Talebi, Shahriar
Systems and Control
Optimization and Control
Kalman filtering is a cornerstone of estimation theory, yet learning the optimal filter under unknown and potentially singular noise covariances remains a fundamental challenge. In this paper, we revisit this problem through the lens of control--estimation duality and data-driven policy optimization, formulating the learning of the steady-state Kalman gain as a stochastic policy optimization problem directly from measurement data. Our key contribution is a Riemannian regularization that reshapes the optimization landscape, restoring structural properties such as coercivity and gradient dominance. This geometric perspective enables the effective use of first-order methods under significantly relaxed conditions, including unknown and rank-deficient noise covariances. Building on this framework, we develop a computationally efficient algorithm with a data-driven gradient oracle, enabling scalable stochastic implementations. We further establish non-asymptotic convergence and error guarantees enabled by the Riemannian regularization, quantifying the impact of bias and variance in gradient estimates and demonstrating favorable scaling with problem dimension. Numerical results corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and robustness to the choice of stepsize in challenging singular estimation regimes.
title Learning Kalman Policy for Singular Unknown Covariances via Riemannian Regularization
topic Systems and Control
Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.05071