Robust Linear Regression Analysis - A Greedy Approach

The task of robust linear estimation in the presence of outliers is of particular importance in signal processing, statistics and machine learning. Although the problem has been stated a few decades ago and solved using classical (considered nowadays) methods, recently it has attracted more attention in the context of sparse modeling, where several notable contributions have been made. In the present manuscript, a new approach is considered in the framework of greedy algorithms. The noise is split into two components: a) the inlier bounded noise and b) the outliers, which are explicitly modeled by employing sparsity arguments. Based on this scheme, a novel efficient algorithm (Greedy Algorithm for Robust Denoising - GARD), is derived. GARD alternates between a least square optimization criterion and an Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (OMP) selection step that identifies the outliers. The case where only outliers are present has been studied separately, where bounds on the \textit{Restricted Isometry Property} guarantee that the recovery of the signal via GARD is exact. Moreover, theoretical results concerning convergence as well as the derivation of error bounds in the case of additional bounded noise are discussed. Finally, we provide extensive simulations, which demonstrate the comparative advantages of the new technique

Regularization and Bayesian Learning in Dynamical Systems: Past, Present and Future

Regularization and Bayesian methods for system identification have been repopularized in the recent years, and proved to be competitive w.r.t. classical parametric approaches. In this paper we shall make an attempt to illustrate how the use of regularization in system identification has evolved over the years, starting from the early contributions both in the Automatic Control as well as Econometrics and Statistics literature. In particular we shall discuss some fundamental issues such as compound estimation problems and exchangeability which play and important role in regularization and Bayesian approaches, as also illustrated in early publications in Statistics. The historical and foundational issues will be given more emphasis (and space), at the expense of the more recent developments which are only briefly discussed. The main reason for such a choice is that, while the recent literature is readily available, and surveys have already been published on the subject, in the author's opinion a clear link with past work had not been completely clarified.Comment: Plenary Presentation at the IFAC SYSID 2015. Submitted to Annual Reviews in Contro