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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

We consider safety-critical multi-agent systems with distributed control architectures and potentially varying network topologies. While learning-based distributed control enables scalability and high performance, a lack of formal safety…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-04-01 Jonas Ohnemus , Alexandre Didier , Ahmed Aboudonia , Andrea Carron , Melanie N. Zeilinger

Ensuring safety for autonomous robots operating in dynamic environments can be challenging due to factors such as unmodeled dynamics, noisy sensor measurements, and partial observability. To account for these limitations, it is common to…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-04-08 Shaohang Han , Matti Vahs , Jana Tumova

Obtaining a controlled invariant set is crucial for safety-critical control with control barrier functions (CBFs) but is non-trivial for complex nonlinear systems and constraints. Backup control barrier functions allow such sets to be…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-12-16 David E. J. van Wijk , Samuel Coogan , Tamas G. Molnar , Manoranjan Majji , Kerianne L. Hobbs

Learning-based methods have gained popularity for training candidate Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) to satisfy the CBF conditions on a finite set of sampled states. However, since the CBF is unknown a priori, it is unclear which sampled…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-06-17 Erfan Shakhesi , Alexander Katriniok , W. P. M. H. Heemels

Correct-by-construction techniques, such as control barrier functions (CBFs), can be used to guarantee closed-loop safety by acting as a supervisor of an existing or legacy controller. However, supervisory-control intervention typically…

Systems and Control · Computer Science 2018-05-03 Yuxiao Chen , Ayonga Hereid , Huei Peng , Jessy Grizzle

Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) and Control Lyapunov Functions (CLFs) are popular tools for enforcing safety and stability of a controlled system, respectively. They are commonly utilized to build constraints that can be incorporated in a…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2021-10-05 Fernando Castañeda , Jason J. Choi , Bike Zhang , Claire J. Tomlin , Koushil Sreenath

Safe deployment of autonomous robots in diverse scenarios requires agents that are capable of efficiently adapting to new environments while satisfying constraints. In this work, we propose a practical and theoretically-justified approach…

Robotics · Computer Science 2022-02-17 Thomas Lew , Apoorva Sharma , James Harrison , Andrew Bylard , Marco Pavone

Safety for control systems is often posed as an invariance constraint; the system is said to be safe if state trajectories avoid some unsafe region of the statespace for all time. An assured controller is one that enforces safety online by…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2020-08-18 Matthew Abate , Samuel Coogan

In this paper we consider the safety verification and safe controller synthesis problems for nonlinear control systems. The Control Barrier Certificates (CBC) approach is proposed as an extension to the Barrier certificates approach. Our…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-04-22 Han Wang , Kostas Margellos , Antonis Papachristodoulou

Endowing nonlinear systems with safe behavior is increasingly important in modern control. This task is particularly challenging for real-life control systems that must operate safely in dynamically changing environments. This paper…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2022-12-06 Tamas G. Molnar , Adam K. Kiss , Aaron D. Ames , Gábor Orosz

In emerging control applications involving multiple and complex tasks, safety filters are gaining prominence as a modular approach to enforcing safety constraints. Among various methods, control barrier functions (CBFs) are widely used for…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-08-12 Jason J. Choi , Claire J. Tomlin , Shankar Sastry , Koushil Sreenath

We present a robust safety-critical control framework tailored for networked susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) epidemic dynamics, leveraging control barrier functions (CBFs) and robust control barrier functions to address the challenges…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-02-03 Saba Samadi , Brooks A. Butler , Philip E. Paré

This paper details the theory and implementation behind practically ensuring safety of remotely piloted racing drones. We demonstrate robust and practical safety guarantees on a 7" racing drone at speeds exceeding 100 km/h, utilizing only…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2022-01-13 Andrew Singletary , Aiden Swann , Yuxiao Chen , Aaron D. Ames

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…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-10-14 James Usevitch , Juan Augusto Paredes Salazar , Ankit Goel

In this paper, we investigate safety-critical control problem of discrete-time stochastic systems with incomplete information, where safety constraints must be enforced using state estimates obtained from noisy measurements. We develop an…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-04-15 Jianing Zhao , Zhuoting Cai , Xiang Yin

Control barrier functions (CBFs) provide a principled framework for enforcing safety in control systems -- yet the certified safe operating region in practice is often conservative, especially under input bounds. In many applications,…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-04-07 Pio Ong , David E. J. van Wijk , Massimiliano de Sa , Joel W. Burdick , Aaron D. Ames

Providing non-trivial certificates of safety for non-linear stochastic systems is an important open problem that limits the wider adoption of autonomous systems in safety-critical applications. One promising solution to address this problem…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2022-06-06 Frederik Baymler Mathiesen , Simeon Calvert , Luca Laurenti

We address the problem of safely learning controlled stochastic dynamics from discrete-time trajectory observations, ensuring system trajectories remain within predefined safe regions during both training and deployment. Safety-critical…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-02-03 Luc Brogat-Motte , Alessandro Rudi , Riccardo Bonalli

While learning-based control techniques often outperform classical controller designs, safety requirements limit the acceptance of such methods in many applications. Recent developments address this issue through so-called predictive safety…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2022-05-16 Kim P. Wabersich , Melanie N. Zeilinger