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Certifying the safety of nonlinear systems, through the lens of set invariance and control barrier functions (CBFs), offers a powerful method for controller synthesis, provided a CBF can be constructed. This paper draws connections between…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-06-18 Max H. Cohen , Ryan K. Cosner , Aaron D. Ames

The increasing complexity of control systems necessitates control laws that guarantee safety w.r.t. complex combinations of constraints. In this letter, we propose a framework to describe compositional safety specifications with control…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2023-12-05 Tamas G. Molnar , Aaron D. Ames

Robots operating in real world settings must navigate and maintain safety while interacting with many heterogeneous agents and obstacles. Multi-Agent Control Barrier Functions (CBF) have emerged as a computationally efficient tool to…

Robotics · Computer Science 2020-09-24 Richard Cheng , Mohammad Javad Khojasteh , Aaron D. Ames , Joel W. Burdick

We propose integrating an approximation of a predictive control barrier function (PCBF) in a safety filter framework, resulting in a prediction horizon independent formulation. The PCBF is defined through the value function of an optimal…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-08-26 Alexandre Didier , Melanie N. Zeilinger

Control barrier functions have shown great success in addressing control problems with safety guarantees. These methods usually find the next safe control input by solving an online quadratic programming problem. However, model uncertainty…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2020-11-24 Chuanzheng Wang , Yinan Li , Yiming Meng , Stephen L. Smith , Jun Liu

In this paper, we consider the problem of synthesizing a controller in the presence of uncertainty such that the resulting closed-loop system satisfies certain hard constraints while optimizing certain (soft) performance objectives. We…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2022-10-17 Navid Hashemi , Xin Qin , Jyotirmoy V. Deshmukh , Georgios Fainekos , Bardh Hoxha , Danil Prokhorov , Tomoya Yamaguchi

Control barrier functions (CBFs) provide a theoretical foundation for safety-critical control in robotic systems. However, most existing methods rely on explicit analytical expressions of unsafe state regions, which are often impractical…

Robotics · Computer Science 2026-02-10 Songqiao Hu , Zidong Wang , Zeyi Liu , Zhen Shen , Xiao He

This contribution introduces a centralized input constrained optimal control framework based on multiple control barrier functions (CBFs) to coordinate connected and automated agents at intersections. For collision avoidance, we propose a…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-07-12 Alexander Katriniok

Control barrier functions (CBFs) recently introduced a systematic way to guarantee the system's safety through set invariance. Together with a nominal control method, it establishes a safety-critical control mechanism. The resulting safety…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2022-09-13 Mohammad Aali , Jun Liu

For efficient and robust task accomplishment in multi-agent systems, an agent must be able to distinguish cooperative agents from non-cooperative agents, i.e., uncooperative and adversarial agents. Task descriptions capturing safety and…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-04-12 Hardik Parwana , Dimitra Panagou

Safe reinforcement learning (RL) for robotic systems requires policies that improve task performance while satisfying state and input constraints during both training and deployment. Control barrier functions (CBFs) provide a principled…

Robotics · Computer Science 2026-05-27 Dhruv S. Kushwaha , Zoleikha A. Biron

Multi-robot systems (MRS) are essential for large-scale applications such as disaster response, material transport, and warehouse logistics, yet ensuring robust, safety-aware formation control in cluttered and dynamic environments remains a…

Robotics · Computer Science 2026-05-06 Qintong Xie , Weishu Zhan , Peter Chin

Safe control in unknown environments is a significant challenge in robotics. While Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) are widely used to guarantee system safety, they often assume known environments with predefined obstacles. The proposed…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-09-16 Golnaz Raja , Teemu Mökkönen , Reza Ghabcheloo

Safe control for inherently unstable systems such as quadrotors is crucial. Imposing multiple dynamic constraints simultaneously on the states for safety regulation can be a challenging problem. In this paper, we propose a quadratic…

Systems and Control · Computer Science 2022-03-08 Mouhyemen Khan , Munzir Zafar , Abhijit Chatterjee

Safety filters based on control barrier functions (CBFs) and high-order control barrier functions (HOCBFs) are often implemented through quadratic programs (QPs). In general, especially in the presence of multiple constraints, feasibility…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-04-07 Shima Sadat Mousavi , Max H. Cohen , Pol Mestres , Aaron D. Ames

Control barrier functions (CBFs) provide a rigorous framework for designing controllers enforcing safety constraints. While CBF theory is well-developed for a finite number of safety constraints, certain applications, e.g., backup CBFs,…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-04-20 Max H. Cohen , Pio Ong , Pol Mestres , Aaron D. Ames

This paper investigates the problem of composing multiple control barrier functions (CBFs) -- and matrix control barrier functions (MCBFs) -- through logical and combinatorial operations. Standard CBF formulations naturally enable…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-12-22 Pio Ong , Haejoon Lee , Tamas G. Molnar , Dimitra Panagou , Aaron D. Ames

Control barrier functions (CBFs) are important in safety-critical systems and robot control applications. Neural networks have been used to parameterize and synthesize CBFs with bounded control input for complex systems. However, it is…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-10-23 Hanjiang Hu , Yujie Yang , Tianhao Wei , Changliu Liu

This paper studies safety guarantees for systems with time-varying control bounds. It has been shown that optimizing quadratic costs subject to state and control constraints can be reduced to a sequence of Quadratic Programs (QPs) using…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-04-22 Shuo Liu , Wei Xiao , Calin A. Belta

Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) have emerged as a prominent approach to designing safe navigation systems of robots. Despite their popularity, current CBF-based methods exhibit some limitations: optimization-based safe control techniques…

Robotics · Computer Science 2026-03-17 Junjun Xie , Shuhao Zhao , Liang Hu , Huijun Gao