Related papers: Safety-Aware Optimal Control for Motion Planning w…
We study the safe reinforcement learning problem with nonlinear function approximation, where policy optimization is formulated as a constrained optimization problem with both the objective and the constraint being nonconvex functions. For…
This paper proposes vehicle motion planning methods with obstacle avoidance in tight spaces by incorporating polygonal approximations of both the vehicle and obstacles into a model predictive control (MPC) framework. Representing these…
Generating time-optimal, collision-free trajectories for autonomous mobile robots involves a fundamental trade-off between guaranteeing safety and managing computational complexity. State-of-the-art approaches formulate spline-based motion…
Multistage risk-averse optimal control problems with nested conditional risk mappings are gaining popularity in various application domains. Risk-averse formulations interpolate between the classical expectation-based stochastic and minimax…
Ensuring constraint satisfaction is a key requirement for safety-critical systems, which include most robotic platforms. For example, constraints can be used for modeling joint position/velocity/torque limits and collision avoidance.…
We develop a control algorithm that ensures the safety, in terms of confinement in a set, of a system with unknown, 2nd-order nonlinear dynamics. The algorithm establishes novel connections between data-driven and robust, nonlinear control.…
Most of the optimal guidance problems can be formulated as nonconvex optimization problems, which can be solved indirectly by relaxation, convexification, or linearization. Although these methods are guaranteed to converge to the global…
The aim of this manuscript is to approach by means of first order differential equations/inclusions convex programming problems with two-block separable linear constraints and objectives, whereby (at least) one of the components of the…
Model predictive control solves a constrained optimization problem online in order to compute an implicit closed-loop control policy. Recursive feasibility -- guaranteeing that the optimal control problem will have a solution at every time…
Control barrier functions (CBFs) have seen widespread success in providing forward invariance and safety guarantees for dynamical control systems. A crucial limitation of discrete-time formulations is that CBFs that are nonconcave in their…
This paper presents a new control approach for guaranteed safety (remaining in a safe set) subject to actuator constraints (the control is in a convex polytope). The control signals are computed using real-time optimization, including…
Safety is a core challenge of autonomous robot motion planning, especially in the presence of dynamic and uncertain obstacles. Many recent results use learning and deep learning-based motion planners and prediction modules to predict…
Motion planning is a fundamental problem and focuses on finding control inputs that enable a robot to reach a goal region while safely avoiding obstacles. However, in many situations, the state of the system may not be known but only…
This work proposes a safety-critical local reactive controller that enables the robot to navigate in unknown and cluttered environments. In particular, the trajectory tracking task is formulated as a constrained polynomial optimization…
This paper proposes a fully data-driven motion-planning framework for homogeneous linear multi-agent systems that operate in shared, obstacle-filled workspaces without access to explicit system models. Each agent independently learns its…
We present gPC-SCP: Generalized Polynomial Chaos-based Sequential Convex Programming to compute a sub-optimal solution for a continuous-time chance-constrained stochastic nonlinear optimal control (SNOC) problem. The approach enables motion…
We present the Neural Simplex Architecture (NSA), a new approach to runtime assurance that provides safety guarantees for neural controllers (obtained e.g. using reinforcement learning) of autonomous and other complex systems without unduly…
This work addresses the ecological-adaptive cruise control problem for connected electric vehicles by a computationally efficient robust control strategy. The problem is formulated in the space-domain with a realistic description of the…
Applying intelligent robot arms in dynamic uncertain environments (i.e., flexible production lines) remains challenging, which requires efficient algorithms for real time trajectory generation. The motion planning problem for robot…
We present an optimization-based approach to stochastic control problems with nonclassical information structures. We cast these problems equivalently as optimization prob- lems on joint distributions. The resulting problems are necessarily…