Kriging / Gaussian Process Conditional Simulations in Matlab - matlab

Question

I would like to perform conditional simulations for Gaussian process (GP) models in Matlab. I have found a tutorial by Martin Kolář (http://mrmartin.net/?p=223).
sigma_f = 1.1251; %parameter of the squared exponential kernel
l = 0.90441; %parameter of the squared exponential kernel
kernel_function = #(x,x2) sigma_f^2*exp((x-x2)^2/(-2*l^2));
%This is one of many popular kernel functions, the squared exponential
%kernel. It favors smooth functions. (Here, it is defined here as an anonymous
%function handle)
% we can also define an error function, which models the observation noise
sigma_n = 0.1; %known noise on observed data
error_function = #(x,x2) sigma_n^2*(x==x2);
%this is just iid gaussian noise with mean 0 and variance sigma_n^2s
%kernel functions can be added together. Here, we add the error kernel to
%the squared exponential kernel)
k = #(x,x2) kernel_function(x,x2)+error_function(x,x2);
X_o = [-1.5 -1 -0.75 -0.4 -0.3 0]';
Y_o = [-1.6 -1.3 -0.5 0 0.3 0.6]';
prediction_x=-2:0.01:1;
K = zeros(length(X_o));
for i=1:length(X_o)
for j=1:length(X_o)
K(i,j)=k(X_o(i),X_o(j));
end
end
%% Demo #5.2 Sample from the Gaussian Process posterior
clearvars -except k prediction_x K X_o Y_o
%We can also sample from this posterior, the same way as we sampled before:
K_ss=zeros(length(prediction_x),length(prediction_x));
for i=1:length(prediction_x)
for j=i:length(prediction_x)%We only calculate the top half of the matrix. This an unnecessary speedup trick
K_ss(i,j)=k(prediction_x(i),prediction_x(j));
end
end
K_ss=K_ss+triu(K_ss,1)'; % We can use the upper half of the matrix and copy it to the
K_s=zeros(length(prediction_x),length(X_o));
for i=1:length(prediction_x)
for j=1:length(X_o)
K_s(i,j)=k(prediction_x(i),X_o(j));
end
end
[V,D]=eig(K_ss-K_s/K*K_s');
A=real(V*(D.^(1/2)));
for i=1:7
standard_random_vector = randn(length(A),1);
gaussian_process_sample(:,i) = A * standard_random_vector+K_s/K*Y_o;
end
hold on
plot(prediction_x,real(gaussian_process_sample))
set(plot(X_o,Y_o,'r.'),'MarkerSize',20)
The tutorial generates the conditional simulations using a direct simulation method based on covariance matrix decomposition. It is my understanding that there are several methods of generating conditional simulations that may be better when the number of simulation points is large such as conditioning by Kriging using a local neighborhood. I have found information regarding several methods in J.-P. Chilès and P. Delfiner, “Chapter 7 - Conditional Simulations,” in Geostatistics: Modeling Spatial Uncertainty, Second Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2012, pp. 478–628.
Is there an existing Matlab toolbox that can be used for conditional simulations? I am aware of DACE, GPML, and mGstat (http://mgstat.sourceforge.net/). I believe only mGstat offers the capability to perform conditional simulations. However, mGstat also seems to be limited to only 3D models and I am interested in higher dimensional models.
Can anybody offer any advice on getting started performing conditional simulations with an existing toolbox such as GPML?
===================================================================
EDIT
I have found a few more Matlab toolboxes: STK, ScalaGauss, ooDACE
It appears STK is capable of conditional simulations using covariance matrix decomposition. However, is limited to a moderate number (maybe a few thousand?) of simulation points due to the Cholesky factorization.

Answer 1

I used the STK toolbox and I recommend it for others:
http://kriging.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/
I found that if you need conditional simulations at a large number of points then you might consider generating a conditional simulation at the points in a large design of experiment (DoE) and then simply relying on the mean prediction conditional on that DoE.