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Achieving highly dynamic behaviors on humanoid robots, such as running, requires controllers that are both robust and precise, and hence difficult to design. Classical control methods offer valuable insight into how such systems can…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-09-25 Zachary Olkin , Kejun Li , William D. Compton , Aaron D. Ames

Bringing dynamic robots into the wild requires a tenuous balance between performance and safety. Yet controllers designed to provide robust safety guarantees often result in conservative behavior, and tuning these controllers to find the…

Control Lyapunov Functions (CLFs) and Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) can be combined, typically by means of Quadratic Programs (QPs), to design controllers that achieve performance and safety objectives. However, a significant limitation…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-03-18 Hugo Matias , Daniel Silvestre

We consider the problem of designing output feedback controllers that use measurements from a set of landmarks to navigate through a cell-decomposable environment using duality, Control Lyapunov and Barrier Functions (CLF, CBF), and Linear…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-03-22 Mahroo Bahreinian , Mehdi Kermanshah , Roberto Tron

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

We introduce a novel method for mobile robot navigation in dynamic, unknown environments, leveraging onboard sensing and distributionally robust optimization to impose probabilistic safety constraints. Our method introduces a…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-05-07 Kehan Long , Yinzhuang Yi , Zhirui Dai , Sylvia Herbert , Jorge Cortés , Nikolay Atanasov

A combination of control Lyapunov functions (CLFs) and control barrier functions (CBFs) forms an efficient framework for addressing control challenges in safe stabilization. In our previous research, we developed an analytical control…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2023-12-06 Ming Li , Zhiyong Sun

Autonomous robots navigating in changing environments demand adaptive navigation strategies for safe long-term operation. While many modern control paradigms offer theoretical guarantees, they often assume known extrinsic safety…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-04-24 Jingxing Qian , Siqi Zhou , Nicholas Jianrui Ren , Veronica Chatrath , Angela P. Schoellig

Autonomous robot navigation can be particularly demanding, especially when the surrounding environment is not known and safety of the robot is crucial. This work relates to the synthesis of Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) through data for…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-07-30 Marvin Harms , Mihir Kulkarni , Nikhil Khedekar , Martin Jacquet , Kostas Alexis

Control barrier functions (CBFs) have been demonstrated as an effective method for safety-critical control of autonomous systems. Although CBFs are simple to deploy, their design remains challenging, motivating the development of…

Robotics · Computer Science 2026-03-10 Bojan Derajić , Sebastian Bernhard , Wolfgang Hönig

This paper presents an approach for navigation and control in unmapped environments under input and state constraints using a composite control barrier function (CBF). We consider the scenario where real-time perception feedback (e.g.,…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-04-08 Amirsaeid Safari , Jesse B. Hoagg

Optimal control problems with constraints ensuring safety and convergence to desired states can be mapped onto a sequence of real time optimization problems through the use of Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) and Control Lyapunov Functions…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2019-12-10 Wei Xiao , Calin A. Belta , Christos G. Cassandras

Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) provide an elegant framework for constraining nonlinear control system dynamics to remain within an invariant subset of a designated safe set. However, identifying a CBF that balances performance-by…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-11-05 Lakshmideepakreddy Manda , Shaoru Chen , Mahyar Fazlyab

Construction automation increasingly requires autonomous mobile robots, yet robust autonomy remains challenging on construction sites. These environments are dynamic and often visually occluded, which complicates perception and navigation.…

Robotics · Computer Science 2026-02-16 Johannes Mootz , Reza Akhavian

In this paper, the issue of model uncertainty in safety-critical control is addressed with a data-driven approach. For this purpose, we utilize the structure of an input-ouput linearization controller based on a nominal model along with a…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2020-06-05 Jason Choi , Fernando Castañeda , Claire J. Tomlin , Koushil Sreenath

Many modern nonlinear control methods aim to endow systems with guaranteed properties, such as stability or safety, and have been successfully applied to the domain of robotics. However, model uncertainty remains a persistent challenge,…

Robotics · Computer Science 2020-11-20 Andrew J. Taylor , Victor D. Dorobantu , Hoang M. Le , Yisong Yue , Aaron D. Ames

Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) have emerged as a powerful tool in the design of safety-critical controllers for nonlinear systems. In modern applications, complex systems often involve the feedback interconnection of subsystems evolving…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-04-03 Stefano Di Gregorio , Guido Carnevale , Giuseppe Notarstefano

Safe operation is essential for deploying robots in human-centered 3D environments. Soft continuum manipulators provide passive safety through mechanical compliance, but still require active control to achieve reliable collision avoidance.…

Robotics · Computer Science 2026-03-23 Kiwan Wong , Maximillian Stölzle , Wei Xiao , Daniela Rus

Reinforcement learning (RL) has proven to be particularly effective in solving complex decision-making problems for a wide range of applications. Safe reinforcement learning refers to a class of constrained problems where the constraint…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-05-13 Dhruv Singh Kushwaha , Zoleikha Abdollahi Biron

In this work, we address the problem of ensuring real-time safety in autonomous robot navigation, in spatially constrained dynamic environments, by utilizing only onboard sensors. We present a real-time control architecture that integrates…