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We address the problem of optimizing the performance of a dynamic system while satisfying hard safety constraints at all times. Implementing an optimal control solution is limited by the computational cost required to derive it in real…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2020-08-19 Wei Xiao , Christos G. Cassandras , Calin A. Belta

Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) have emerged as a powerful tool in the design of safety-critical controllers for nonlinear systems. In modern applications, complex systems often involve the feedback interconnection of subsystems evolving…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-04-03 Stefano Di Gregorio , Guido Carnevale , Giuseppe Notarstefano

Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) are a practical approach for designing safety-critical controllers, but constructing them for arbitrary nonlinear dynamical systems remains a challenge. Recent efforts have explored learning-based methods,…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-05-20 Manan Tayal , Aditya Singh , Pushpak Jagtap , Shishir Kolathaya

This paper presents methodologies for constructing Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) for nonlinear, control-affine systems, in the presence of input constraints and bounded disturbances. More specifically, given a constraint function with…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2023-06-12 Joseph Breeden , Dimitra Panagou

Safety and stability are essential properties of control systems. Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) and Control Lyapunov Functions (CLFs) are powerful tools to ensure safety and stability respectively. However, previous approaches typically…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-09-17 Hongkai Dai , Chuanrui Jiang , Hongchao Zhang , Andrew Clark

Control Lyapunov functions (CLFs) and control barrier functions (CBFs) are widely used tools for synthesizing controllers subject to stability and safety constraints. Paired with online optimization, they provide stabilizing control actions…

Robotics · Computer Science 2022-10-04 Hongkai Dai , Frank Permenter

This paper addresses the problem of safety-critical control for systems with unknown dynamics. It has been shown that stabilizing affine control systems to desired (sets of) states while optimizing quadratic costs subject to state and…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2021-03-31 Wei Xiao , Calin Belta , Christos G. Cassandras

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

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 function (CBF)-based safety filters provide a systematic way to enforce state constraints, but they can significantly alter the closed-loop dynamics induced by a nominal, stabilizing controller. In particular, the resulting…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-04-03 Yiting Chen , Pol Mestres , Emiliano Dall'Anese , Jorge Cortés

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) algorithms have found limited success beyond simulated applications, and one main reason is the absence of safety guarantees during the learning process. Real world systems would realistically fail or break…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-03-22 Richard Cheng , Gabor Orosz , Richard M. Murray , Joel W. Burdick

This paper presents a new approach for guaranteed safety subject to input constraints (e.g., actuator limits) using a composition of multiple control barrier functions (CBFs). First, we present a method for constructing a single CBF from…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-09-10 Pedram Rabiee , Jesse B. Hoagg

Useful robot control algorithms should not only achieve performance objectives but also adhere to hard safety constraints. Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) have been developed to provably ensure system safety through forward invariance.…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-07-18 Matti Vahs , Rafael I. Cabral Muchacho , Florian T. Pokorny , Jana Tumova

This paper proposes a safety-critical control design approach for nonlinear control affine systems in the presence of matched and unmatched uncertainties. Our constructive framework couples control barrier function (CBF) theory with a new…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-02-03 Ersin Das , Joel W. Burdick

In this paper, the issue of model uncertainty in safety-critical control is addressed with a data-driven approach. For this purpose, we utilize the structure of an input-ouput linearization controller based on a nominal model along with a…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2020-06-05 Jason Choi , Fernando Castañeda , Claire J. Tomlin , Koushil Sreenath

This work introduces a novel Proxy Control Barrier Function (PCBF) scheme that integrates barrier-based and Lyapunov-based safety-critical control strategies for strict-feedback systems with potentially unknown dynamics. The proposed method…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-05-13 Yujie Wang , Xiangru Xu

Robust control barrier functions (CBFs) provide a principled mechanism for smooth safety enforcement under worst-case disturbances. However, existing approaches typically rely on explicit, closed-form structure in the dynamics (e.g.,…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-04-16 Donggeon David Oh , Duy P. Nguyen , Haimin Hu , Jaime Fernández Fisac

Control Lyapunov Functions (CLFs) and Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) can be combined, typically by means of Quadratic Programs (QPs), to design controllers that achieve performance and safety objectives. However, a significant limitation…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-03-18 Hugo Matias , Daniel Silvestre

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