Development of State Estimation Filter Simulator Built on an Integrated GUI Framework

Abstract

We have developed a graphical user interface (GUI)-based state estimation filter simulator (called StefAny) that makes it easy to understand and compare the behaviors of filters such as Kalman filters (KFs) and particle filters (PFs). The key feature of StefAny is to show, when a system designer applies a PF, a detailed graph representing the relationship among the distribution and weights of all particles on any arbitrary timeline through simulation. Moreover, the timeline can be specified on another graph showing an estimated time series for each filter. These features enable system designers to easily check the compatibility between a filter and a target distribution, which determines the state estimation accuracy. In this paper, we present the functions of StefAny and demonstrate in detail how StefAny facilitates understanding of the properties of filters via a compatibility check comparison experiment for PFs, point estimation methods, and distributions.