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In robotics, control barrier function (CBF)-based safety filters are commonly used to enforce state constraints. A critical challenge arises when the relative degree of the CBF varies across the state space. This variability can create…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-04-09 Lukas Brunke , Siqi Zhou , Francesco D'Orazio , Angela P. Schoellig

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

We introduce a novel approach for safe control design based on the density function. A control density function (CDF) is introduced to synthesize a safe controller for a nonlinear dynamic system. The CDF can be viewed as a dual to the…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-07-09 Joseph Moyalan , Sriram S. K. S Narayanan , Umesh Vaidya

This paper introduces a novel safety-critical control method through the synthesis of control barrier functions (CBFs) for systems with high-relative-degree safety constraints. By extending the procedure of CBF backstepping, we propose…

Dynamical Systems · Mathematics 2025-08-29 Laszlo Gacsi , Max H. Cohen , Tamas G. Molnar

Control Lyapunov functions (CLFs) and control barrier functions (CBFs) are widely used tools for synthesizing controllers subject to stability and safety constraints. Paired with online optimization, they provide stabilizing control actions…

Robotics · Computer Science 2022-10-04 Hongkai Dai , Frank Permenter

Control barrier function (CBF) has recently started to serve as a basis to develop approaches for enforcing safety requirements in control systems. However, constructing such function for a general system is a non-trivial task. This paper…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2023-01-02 Zihao Liang , Jason King Ching Lo

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

This work develops a robust adaptive control strategy for discrete-time systems using Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) to ensure safety under parametric model uncertainty and disturbances. A key contribution of this work is establishing a…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-02-05 Changrui Liu , Anil Alan , Shengling Shi , Bart De Schutter

Guaranteeing the safety of nonlinear systems with bounded inputs remains a key challenge in safe autonomy. Backup control barrier functions (bCBFs) provide a powerful mechanism for constructing controlled invariant sets by propagating…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-03-20 David E. J. van Wijk , Dohyun Lee , Ersin Das , Tamas G. Molnar , Aaron D. Ames , Joel W. Burdick

Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms have found limited success beyond simulated applications, and one main reason is the absence of safety guarantees during the learning process. Real world systems would realistically fail or break…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-03-22 Richard Cheng , Gabor Orosz , Richard M. Murray , Joel W. Burdick

As autonomous systems become increasingly prevalent in daily life, ensuring their safety is paramount. Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) have emerged as an effective tool for guaranteeing safety; however, manually designing them for specific…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-04-16 Shreenabh Agrawal , Manan Tayal , Aditya Singh , Shishir Kolathaya

Control barrier functions have been widely used for synthesizing safety-critical controls, often via solving quadratic programs. However, the existence of Gaussian-type noise may lead to unsafe actions and result in severe consequences. In…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2021-04-07 Chuanzheng Wang , Yiming Meng , Stephen L. Smith , Jun Liu

In this paper, we establish a connection between model predictive control (MPC) techniques and Control Barrier Functions (CBFs). Recognizing the similarity between CBFs and Control Lyapunov Functions (CLFs), we propose a MPC formulation…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-07-03 Jingyi Huang , Han Wang , Kostas Margellos , Paul Goulart

This paper studies the efficient implementation of safety filters that are designed using control barrier functions (CBFs), which minimally modify a nominal controller to render it safe with respect to a prescribed set of states. Although…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-04-23 Pol Mestres , Shima Sadat Mousavi , Pio Ong , Lizhi Yang , Ersin Das , Joel W. Burdick , Aaron D. Ames

Control barrier functions (CBFs) offer an efficient framework for designing real-time safe controllers. However, CBF-based controllers can be short-sighted, resulting in poor performance, a behaviour which is aggravated in uncertain…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-09-16 Allan Andre do Nascimento , Antonis Papachristodoulou , Kostas Margellos

In this paper, we develop a safe control synthesis method that integrates state estimation and parameter estimation within an adaptive optimal control (AOC) and control barrier function (CBF)-based control architecture. The developed…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-10-24 Tochukwu E. Ogri , Muzaffar Qureshi , Zachary I. Bell , Wanjiku A. Makumi , Rushikesh Kamalapurkar

Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) have been used to enforce safety and task specifications expressed in Signal Temporal Logic (STL). However, existing CBF-STL approaches typically rely on fixed hyperparameters and per-step optimization,…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-01-29 Wenliang Liu , Shuo Liu , Wei Xiao , Calin A. Belta

Safety-critical control is characterized as ensuring constraint satisfaction for a given dynamical system. Recent developments in zeroing control barrier functions (ZCBFs) have provided a framework for ensuring safety of a superlevel set of…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2021-08-05 Wenceslao Shaw Cortez , Dimos V. Dimarogonas

Control barrier functions (CBFs) have recently introduced a systematic tool to ensure system safety by establishing set invariance. When combined with a nominal control strategy, they form a safety-critical control mechanism. However, the…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-04-22 Mohammad Aali , Jun Liu

Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) allow for efficient synthesis of controllers to maintain desired invariant properties of safety-critical systems. However, the problem of identifying a CBF remains an open question. As such, this paper…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2023-04-11 Prithvi Akella , Apurva Badithela , Richard M. Murray , Aaron D. Ames