English
Related papers

Related papers: Risk-Aware Robot Control in Dynamic Environments U…

200 papers

This paper studies the design of controllers that guarantee stability and safety of nonlinear control affine systems with parametric uncertainty in both the drift and control vector fields. To this end, we introduce novel classes of robust…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-08-12 Max H. Cohen , Calin Belta , Roberto Tron

The problem of dynamic locomotion over rough terrain requires both accurate foot placement together with an emphasis on dynamic stability. Existing approaches to this problem prioritize immediate safe foot placement over longer term dynamic…

Robotics · Computer Science 2021-06-04 Ruben Grandia , Andrew J. Taylor , Aaron D. Ames , Marco Hutter

Safe autonomous navigation in unknown environments remains a critical challenge for robots with limited sensing capabilities. While safety-critical control techniques, such as Control Barrier Functions (CBFs), have been proposed to ensure…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-03-19 Taekyung Kim , Dimitra Panagou

Robots operating alongside people, particularly in sensitive scenarios such as aiding the elderly with daily tasks or collaborating with workers in manufacturing, must guarantee safety and cultivate user trust. Continuum soft manipulators…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-10-20 Kiwan Wong , Maximilian Stölzle , Wei Xiao , Cosimo Della Santina , Daniela Rus , Gioele Zardini

Reinforcement learning is a powerful technique for developing new robot behaviors. However, typical lack of safety guarantees constitutes a hurdle for its practical application on real robots. To address this issue, safe reinforcement…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-04-29 Maeva Guerrier , Hassan Fouad , Giovanni Beltrame

Control barrier functions (CBFs) provide an effective framework for enforcing safety in dynamical systems with scalar constraints. However, many safety constraints are more naturally expressed as matrix-valued conditions, such as positive…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-04-07 Samuel G. Gessow , Pio Ong , Aaron D. Ames , Brett T. Lopez

This paper presents a framework for designing provably safe feedback controllers for sampled-data control affine systems with measurement and actuation uncertainties. Based on the interval Taylor model of nonlinear functions, a sampled-data…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-10-13 Yuhao Zhang , Sequoyah Walters , Xiangru Xu

Safety filters based on Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) have emerged as a practical tool for the safety-critical control of autonomous systems. These approaches encode safety through a value function and enforce safety by imposing a…

Robotics · Computer Science 2022-08-23 Sander Tonkens , Sylvia Herbert

Safety-critical whole-body robot control demands reactive methods that ensure collision avoidance in real-time. Complementarity constraints and control barrier functions (CBF) have emerged as core tools for ensuring such safety constraints,…

With the increasing need for safe control in the domain of autonomous driving, model-based safety-critical control approaches are widely used, especially Control Barrier Function (CBF)-based approaches. Among them, Exponential CBF (eCBF) is…

Robotics · Computer Science 2022-05-10 Spencer Van Koevering , Yiwei Lyu , Wenhao Luo , John Dolan

In a complex real-time operating environment, external disturbances and uncertainties adversely affect the safety, stability, and performance of dynamical systems. This paper presents a robust stabilizing safety-critical controller…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2022-04-29 Ersin Daş , Richard M. Murray

Generating collision-free motions in dynamic environments is a challenging problem for high-dimensional robotics, particularly under real-time constraints. Control Barrier Functions (CBFs), widely utilized in safety-critical control, have…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-12-24 Xuemin Chi , Yiming Li , Jihao Huang , Bolun Dai , Zhitao Liu , Sylvain Calinon

This paper introduces a novel safety-critical control method through the synthesis of control barrier functions (CBFs) for systems with high-relative-degree safety constraints. By extending the procedure of CBF backstepping, we propose…

Dynamical Systems · Mathematics 2025-08-29 Laszlo Gacsi , Max H. Cohen , Tamas G. Molnar

Uncertainty-aware controllers that guarantee safety are critical for safety critical applications. Among such controllers, Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) based approaches are popular because they are fast, yet safe. However, most such…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-07-02 Masoud Ataei , Vikas Dhiman

This paper focuses on safety critical control with sector-bounded uncertainties at the plant input. The uncertainties can represent nonlinear and/or time-varying components. We propose a new robust control barrier function (RCBF) approach…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-09-07 Jyot Buch , Shih-Chi Liao , Peter Seiler

In dynamic environments, robots often encounter constrained movement trajectories when manipulating objects with specific properties, such as doors. Therefore, applying the appropriate force is crucial to prevent damage to both the robots…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-12-02 Lai Wei , Jiahua Ma , Yibo Hu , Ruimao Zhang

Safety-critical control systems, such as spacecraft performing proximity operations, must provide formal safety guarantees despite stochastic uncertainties from state estimation and unmodeled dynamics. Although Control Barrier Functions…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-04-13 Kazuya Echigo , David E. J. van Wijk , Pol Mestres , Ersin Daş , Joel W. Burdick , Aaron D. Ames

We present a closed-form optimal control that satisfies both safety constraints (i.e., state constraints) and input constraints (e.g., actuator limits) using a composition of multiple control barrier functions (CBFs). This main contribution…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-07-08 Pedram Rabiee , Jesse B. Hoagg

Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) have become a popular tool for enforcing set invariance in safety-critical control systems. While guaranteeing safety, most CBF approaches are myopic in the sense that they solve an optimization problem at…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2020-08-11 Max Cohen , Calin Belta

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