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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

In this paper, we establish a connection between model predictive control (MPC) techniques and Control Barrier Functions (CBFs). Recognizing the similarity between CBFs and Control Lyapunov Functions (CLFs), we propose a MPC formulation…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-07-03 Jingyi Huang , Han Wang , Kostas Margellos , Paul Goulart

A common assumption on the deployment of safeguarding controllers on the digital platform is that high sampling frequency translates to a small violation of safety. This paper investigates and formalizes this assumption through the lens of…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2023-10-04 Gilbert Bahati , Pio Ong , Aaron D. Ames

Safety filters based on control barrier functions (CBFs) have become a popular method to guarantee safety for uncertified control policies, e.g., as resulting from reinforcement learning. Here, safety is defined as staying in a pre-defined…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-04-19 Lukas Brunke , Siqi Zhou , Mingxuan Che , Angela P. Schoellig

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

This paper addresses the challenge of synthesizing safety-critical controllers for high-order nonlinear systems, where constructing valid Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) remains computationally intractable. Leveraging layered control, we…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-04-06 Jixian Liu , Enrique Mallada

The safety of training task policies and their subsequent application using reinforcement learning (RL) methods has become a focal point in the field of safe RL. A central challenge in this area remains the establishment of theoretical…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-05-02 Chenggang Wang , Xinyi Wang , Yutong Dong , Lei Song , Xinping Guan

With the increasing complexity of real-world systems and varying environmental uncertainties, it is difficult to build an accurate dynamic model, which poses challenges especially for safety-critical control. In this paper, a learning-based…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-08-13 Sihua Zhang , Di-Hua Zhai , Xiaobing Dai , Tzu-yuan Huang , Yuanqing Xia , Sandra Hirche

Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) are utilized to ensure the safety of control systems. CBFs act as safety filters in order to provide safety guarantees without compromising system performance. These safety guarantees rely on the…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-06-30 Hongchao Zhang , Manan Tayal , Jackson Cox , Pushpak Jagtap , Shishir Kolathaya , Andrew Clark

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

Safety has been a critical issue for the deployment of learning-based approaches in real-world applications. To address this issue, control barrier function (CBF) and its variants have attracted extensive attention for safety-critical…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-05-08 Alaa Eddine Chriat , Chuangchuang Sun

We present verifiable conditions for synthesizing a single smooth Lyapunov function that certifies both asymptotic stability and safety under bounded controls. These sufficient conditions ensure the strict compatibility of a control barrier…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-11-14 Jun Liu

Safety stands as the primary obstacle preventing the widespread adoption of learning-based robotic systems in our daily lives. While reinforcement learning (RL) shows promise as an effective robot learning paradigm, conventional RL…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-05-27 Maeva Guerrier , Karthik Soma , Hassan Fouad , Giovanni Beltrame

This paper takes a step towards addressing the difficulty of constructing Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) for parallel safety boundaries. A single CBF for both boundaries has been reported to be difficult to validate for safety, and we…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-12-23 Kwang Hak Kim , Mamadou Diagne , Miroslav Krstić

Ensuring the safety of control systems often requires the satisfaction of constraints on states (such as position or velocity), control inputs (such as force), and a mixture of states and inputs (such as power that depends on both velocity…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-03-19 Laszlo Gacsi , Adam K. Kiss , Ersin Das , Tamas G. Molnar

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

Merely pursuing performance may adversely affect the safety, while a conservative policy for safe exploration will degrade the performance. How to balance the safety and performance in learning-based control problems is an interesting yet…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-01-28 Xinyang Wang , Hongwei Zhang , Shimin Wang , Wei Xiao , Martin Guay

Safety is one of the most important properties of control systems. Sensor faults and attacks and actuator failures may cause errors in the sensor measurements and system dynamics, which leads to erroneous control inputs and hence safety…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-06-30 Hongchao Zhang , Zhouchi Li , Andrew Clark

Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) that provide formal safety guarantees have been widely used for safety-critical systems. However, it is non-trivial to design a CBF. Utilizing neural networks as CBFs has shown great success, but it…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2023-11-20 Xinyu Wang , Luzia Knoedler , Frederik Baymler Mathiesen , Javier Alonso-Mora

This paper develops a smooth safety-filtering framework for nonlinear control-affine systems under limited perception. Classical Control Barrier Function (CBF) filters assume global availability of the safety function - its value and…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-12-22 Lyes Smaili , Soulaimane Berkane