Related papers: Robust Barrier Functions for a Fully Autonomous, R…
The need for robust control laws is especially important in safety-critical applications. We propose robust hybrid control barrier functions as a means to synthesize control laws that ensure robust safety. Based on this notion, we formulate…
Compositional barrier functions are proposed in this paper to systematically compose multiple objectives for teams of mobile robots. The objectives are first encoded as barrier functions, and then composed using AND and OR logical…
Safety concerns have risen as robots become more integrated into our daily lives and continue to interact closely with humans. One of the most crucial safety priorities is preventing collisions between robots and people walking nearby.…
Robotic grasping requires safe force interaction to prevent a grasped object from being damaged or slipping out of the hand. In this vein, this paper proposes an integrated framework for grasping with formal safety guarantees based on…
This paper presents methodologies for constructing Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) for nonlinear, control-affine systems, in the presence of input constraints and bounded disturbances. More specifically, given a constraint function with…
The safe control of multi-robot swarms is a challenging and active field of research, where common goals include maintaining group cohesion while simultaneously avoiding obstacles and inter-agent collision. Building off our previously…
In this letter, we detail our randomized approach to safety-critical system verification. Our method requires limited system data to make a strong verification statement. Specifically, our method first randomly samples initial conditions…
Swarm User Interfaces allow dynamic arrangement of user environments through the use of multiple mobile robots, but their operational range is typically confined to a single plane due to constraints imposed by their two-wheel propulsion…
Set invariance techniques such as control barrier functions (CBFs) can be used to enforce time-varying constraints such as keeping a safe distance from dynamic objects. However, existing methods for enforcing time-varying constraints often…
We present a closed-form optimal control that satisfies both safety constraints (i.e., state constraints) and input constraints (e.g., actuator limits) using a composition of multiple control barrier functions (CBFs). This main contribution…
In recent years, many control problems of autonomous mobile robots have been developed. In particular, the robots are required to be safe; that is, they need to be controlled to avoid colliding with people or objects while traveling. In…
This paper considers the general problem of transitioning theoretically safe controllers to hardware. Concretely, we explore the application of control barrier functions (CBFs) to sampled-data systems: systems that evolve continuously but…
Connected and automated vehicles and robot swarms hold transformative potential for enhancing safety, efficiency, and sustainability in the transportation and manufacturing sectors. Extensive testing and validation of these technologies is…
This paper considers the problem of maintaining global connectivity of a multi-robot system while executing a desired coordination task. Our approach builds on optimization-based feedback design formulations, where the nominal cost function…
Robot capabilities are maturing across domains, from self-driving cars, to bipeds and drones. As a result, robots will soon no longer be confined to safety-controlled industrial settings; instead, they will directly interact with the…
Safety is a fundamental requirement in any human-robot collaboration scenario. To ensure the safety of users for such scenarios, we propose a novel Virtual Barrier system facilitated by an augmented reality interface. Our system provides…
This paper presents a new approach for guaranteed safety subject to input constraints (e.g., actuator limits) using a composition of multiple control barrier functions (CBFs). First, we present a method for constructing a single CBF from…
Passivity is necessary for robots to fluidly collaborate and interact with humans physically. Nevertheless, due to the unconstrained nature of passivity-based impedance control laws, the robot is vulnerable to infeasible and unsafe…
Robots built from soft materials will inherently apply lower environmental forces than their rigid counterparts, and therefore may be more suitable in sensitive settings with unintended contact. However, these robots' applied forces result…
The functional demands of robotic systems often require completing various tasks or behaviors under the effect of disturbances or uncertain environments. Of increasing interest is the autonomy for dynamic robots, such as multirotors, motor…