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Related papers: Safe-by-Design Control for Euler-Lagrange Systems

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Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) are becoming popular tools in guaranteeing safety for nonlinear systems and constraints, and they can reduce a constrained optimal control problem into a sequence of Quadratic Programs (QPs) for affine…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2023-01-02 Wei Xiao , Christos G. Cassandras , Calin A. Belta , Daniela Rus

We propose control barrier functions (CBFs) for a family of dynamical systems to satisfy a broad fragment of Signal Temporal Logic (STL) specifications, which may include subtasks with nested temporal operators or conflicting requirements…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2022-04-08 Ali Tevfik Buyukkocak , Derya Aksaray , Yasin Yazıcıoğlu

Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) have been demonstrated to be a powerful tool for safety-critical controller design for nonlinear systems. Existing design paradigms do not address the gap between theory (controller design with continuous…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2022-06-15 Andrew J. Taylor , Victor D. Dorobantu , Ryan K. Cosner , Yisong Yue , Aaron D. Ames

Safety is a fundamental requirement for autonomous systems operating in critical domains. Control barrier functions (CBFs) have been used to design safety filters that minimally alter nominal controls for such systems to maintain their…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2025-10-27 Yuxuan Yang , Hussein Sibai

Control systems operating in the real world face countless sources of unpredictable uncertainties. These random disturbances can render deterministic guarantees inapplicable and cause catastrophic safety failures. To overcome this, this…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-02-10 Pol Mestres , Blake Werner , Ryan K. Cosner , Aaron D. Ames

This paper proposes a safety-critical controller for dynamic and uncertain environments, leveraging a robust environment control barrier function (ECBF) to enhance the robustness against the measurement and prediction uncertainties…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-03-21 Ying Shuai Quan , Jian Zhou , Erik Frisk , Chung Choo Chung

This tutorial paper presents recent work of the authors that extends the theory of Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) to address practical challenges in the synthesis of safe controllers for autonomous systems and robots. We present novel…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-12-29 Kunal Garg , James Usevitch , Joseph Breeden , Mitchell Black , Devansh Agrawal , Hardik Parwana , Dimitra Panagou

This paper introduces integral control barrier functions (I-CBFs) as a means to enable the safety-critical integral control of nonlinear systems. Importantly, I-CBFs allow for the holistic encoding of both state constraints and input bounds…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-07-09 Aaron D. Ames , Gennaro Notomista , Yorai Wardi , Magnus Egerstedt

In this paper, we address the problem of synthesizing safe and stabilizing controllers for nonlinear systems subject to complex safety specifications and input constraints. We introduce the Universal Barrier Function (UBF), a single…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-11-04 Vrushabh Zinage , Efstathios Bakolas

Safety-critical whole-body robot control demands reactive methods that ensure collision avoidance in real-time. Complementarity constraints and control barrier functions (CBF) have emerged as core tools for ensuring such safety constraints,…

Safe real-time control of robotic manipulators in unstructured environments requires handling numerous safety constraints without compromising task performance. Traditional approaches, such as artificial potential fields (APFs), suffer from…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-10-21 Daniel Morton , Marco Pavone

This paper introduces the notion of an Input Constrained Control Barrier Function (ICCBF), as a method to synthesize safety-critical controllers for non-linear control affine systems with input constraints. The method identifies a subset of…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-03-15 Devansh Agrawal , Dimitra Panagou

Providing safety guarantees for learning-based controllers is important for real-world applications. One approach to realizing safety for arbitrary control policies is safety filtering. If necessary, the filter modifies control inputs to…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2023-12-18 Lukas Brunke , Siqi Zhou , Mingxuan Che , Angela P. Schoellig

In recent years, the analysis of a control barrier function has received considerable attention because it is helpful for the safety-critical control required in many control application problems. While the extension of the analysis to a…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-04-18 Yuki Nishimura , Kenta Hoshino

This work presents a theoretical framework for the safety-critical control of time delay systems. The theory of control barrier functions, that provides formal safety guarantees for delay-free systems, is extended to systems with state…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2022-06-20 Adam K. Kiss , Tamas G. Molnar , Aaron D. Ames , Gabor Orosz

This paper presents a comprehensive approach for the safety-critical control of robotic manipulators operating in dynamic environments. Building upon the framework of Control Barrier Functions (CBFs), we extend the collision cone…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-03-04 Lucas Almeida

Safety is of paramount importance in control systems to avoid costly risks and catastrophic damages. The control barrier function (CBF) method, a promising solution for safety-critical control, poses a new challenge of enhancing control…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-03-26 Shengbo Wang , Ke Li , Zheng Yan , Zhenyuan Guo , Song Zhu , Guanghui Wen , Shiping Wen

Control barrier functions (CBFs) have become a popular tool to enforce safety of a control system. CBFs are commonly utilized in a quadratic program formulation (CBF-QP) as safety-critical constraints. A class $\mathcal{K}$ function in CBFs…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2022-04-12 Hengbo Ma , Bike Zhang , Masayoshi Tomizuka , Koushil Sreenath

Ensuring safety for autonomous systems under uncertainty remains challenging, particularly when safety of the true state is required despite the true state not being fully known. Control barrier functions (CBFs) have become widely adopted…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-01-26 Ruoyu Lin , Magnus Egerstedt

Learning-based control with safety guarantees usually requires real-time safety certification and modifications of possibly unsafe learning-based policies. The control barrier function (CBF) method uses a safety filter containing a…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-10-25 Kanghui He , Shengling Shi , Ton van den Boom , Bart De Schutter