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Control barrier functions (CBFs) are an effective model-based tool to formally certify the safety of a system. With the growing complexity of modern control problems, CBFs have received increasing attention in both optimization-based and…

Robotics · Computer Science 2026-04-14 Lishuo Pan , Mattia Catellani , Thales C. Silva , Lorenzo Sabattini , Nora Ayanian

Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) aim to ensure safety by constraining the control input at each time step so that the system state remains within a desired safe region. This paper presents a framework for CBFs in stochastic systems in the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-10-20 Andrew Clark

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

Over the decades, kinematic controllers have proven to be practically useful for applications like set-point and trajectory tracking in robotic systems. To this end, we formulate a novel safety-critical paradigm for kinematic control in…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2020-09-22 Andrew Singletary , Shishir Kolathaya , Aaron D. Ames

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

Fixed-wing UAVs have transformed the transportation system with their high flight speed and long endurance, yet their safe operation in increasingly cluttered environments depends heavily on effective collision avoidance techniques. This…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-07-30 Aryan Agarwal , Ravi Agrawal , Manan Tayal , Pushpak Jagtap , Shishir Kolathaya

Control barrier functions-based quadratic programming (CBF-QP) is gaining popularity as an effective controller synthesis tool for safe control. However, the provable safety is established on an accurate dynamic model and access to all…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2023-08-29 Jinfeng Chen , Zhiqiang Gao , Qin Lin

It has been shown that satisfying state and control constraints while optimizing quadratic costs subject to desired (sets of) state convergence for affine control systems can be reduced to a sequence of quadratic programs (QPs) by using…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-11-18 Wei Xiao , Calin Belta , Christos G. Cassandras

In this paper, we propose a new class of Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) for Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) that help avoid collisions with kinematic (non-zero velocity) obstacles. While the current forms of CBFs have been successful in…

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

This paper investigates the control barrier function (CBF) based safety-critical control for continuous nonlinear control affine systems using the more efficient online algorithms through time-varying optimization. The idea lies in that…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2023-03-21 Shengbo Wang , Shiping Wen , Yin Yang , Yuting Cao , Kaibo Shi , Tingwen Huang

In this work, we consider the problem of designing a safety filter for a nonlinear uncertain control system. Our goal is to augment an arbitrary controller with a safety filter such that the overall closed-loop system is guaranteed to stay…

Robotics · Computer Science 2022-04-11 Lukas Brunke , Siqi Zhou , Angela P. Schoellig

This paper introduces differentiable higher-order control barrier functions (CBF) that are end-to-end trainable together with learning systems. CBFs are usually overly conservative, while guaranteeing safety. Here, we address their…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-11-23 Wei Xiao , Ramin Hasani , Xiao Li , Daniela Rus

Control barrier functions (CBFs) offer a powerful tool for enforcing safety specifications in control synthesis. This paper deals with the problem of constructing valid CBFs. Given a second-order system and any desired safety set with…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-03-17 Mohammed Alyaseen , Nikolay Atanasov , Jorge Cortes

Reinforcement learning (RL) based investment strategies have been widely adopted in portfolio management (PM) in recent years. Nevertheless, most RL-based approaches may often emphasize on pursuing returns while ignoring the risks of the…

Portfolio Management · Quantitative Finance 2023-06-13 Zhenglong Li , Hejun Huang , Vincent Tam

Control barrier functions guarantee safety but typically require accurate system models. Parametric uncertainty invalidates these guarantees. Existing robust methods maintain safety via worst-case bounds, limiting performance, while modular…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-01-27 Mohammadreza Kamaldar

Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) have emerged as a powerful paradigm in control theory, providing a principled approach to enforcing safety-critical constraints in dynamic systems. This survey paper comprehensively explores the foundational…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-08-27 Promit Panja

Autonomous spacecraft inspection and docking missions require controllers that can guarantee safety under thrust constraints and uncertainty. Input-constrained control barrier functions (ICCBFs) provide a framework for safety certification…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-02-10 Minduli C. Wijayatunga , Richard Linares , Roberto Armellin

The backup control barrier function (CBF) was recently proposed as a tractable formulation that guarantees the feasibility of the CBF quadratic programming (QP) via an implicitly defined control invariant set. The control invariant set is…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2021-04-26 Yuxiao Chen , Mrdjan Jankovic , Mario Santillo , Aaron D. Ames

Learning-based methods for constructing control barrier functions (CBFs) are gaining popularity for ensuring safe robot control. A major limitation of existing methods is their reliance on extensive sampling over the state space or online…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-03-17 Hongzhan Yu , Seth Farrell , Ryo Yoshimitsu , Zhizhen Qin , Henrik I. Christensen , Sicun Gao