Deep Bayesian Filtering for Nonlinear Structural System Identification: A Tutorial on Structural and Physical Inductive Biases

Wei Liu, Konstantinos Vlachas, Eleni Chatzi

Nonlinear structural system identification remains challenging when governing physics is only partially known and measurements are sparse. Deep Bayesian filtering addresses these challenges by combining learnable dynamical representations with probabilistic state-space models, physical inductive biases, and uncertainty-aware inference. This paper presents, for the first time, a unified tutorial treatment of deep Bayesian filtering for nonlinear structural system identification, connecting model formulation, learning, posterior inference, and evaluation. Amortized variational inference and differentiable Kalman filtering are introduced as complementary strategies within this broader framework. The Deep Markov Model (DMM) provides a data-driven reference, while the Physics-guided Deep Markov Model (PgDMM) and Neural Extended Kalman Filter (Neural EKF) serve as illustrative instances through which methodological choices and their implications are examined. Dynamic state estimation and joint state and parameter estimation are demonstrated on a three-dimensional shear-frame benchmark with hysteretic Bouc-Wen connections and sparse acceleration measurements. The comparative analysis…