Robust Filtering and Propagation of Uncertainty in Hidden Markov Models

Abstract: We consider the filtering of continuous-time finite-state hidden Markov models, where the rate and observation matrices depend on unknown time-dependent parameters, for which no prior or stochastic model is available. We quantify and analyze how the induced uncertainty may be propagated through time as we collect new observations, and used to simultaneously provide robust estimates of the hidden signal and to learn the unknown parameters, via techniques based on pathwise filtering and new results on the optimal control of rough differential equations.