  We propose a class of intrinsic Gaussian processes (in-GPs) for
interpolation, regression and classification on manifolds with a primary focus
on complex constrained domains or irregular shaped spaces arising as subsets or
submanifolds of R, R2, R3 and beyond. For example, in-GPs can accommodate
spatial domains arising as complex subsets of Euclidean space. in-GPs respect
the potentially complex boundary or interior conditions as well as the
intrinsic geometry of the spaces. The key novelty of the proposed approach is
to utilise the relationship between heat kernels and the transition density of
Brownian motion on manifolds for constructing and approximating valid and
computationally feasible covariance kernels. This enables in-GPs to be
practically applied in great generality, while existing approaches for
smoothing on constrained domains are limited to simple special cases. The broad
utilities of the in-GP approach is illustrated through simulation studies and
data examples.
