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The optimal performance of robotic systems is usually achieved near the limit of state and input bounds. Model predictive control (MPC) is a prevalent strategy to handle these operational constraints, however, safety still remains an open…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2021-03-24 Jun Zeng , Bike Zhang , Koushil Sreenath

In this draft article, we consider the problem of achieving safe control of a dynamic system for which the safety index or (control barrier function (loosely)) has relative degree equal to two. We consider parameter affine nonlinear dynamic…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-08-26 Jaskaran Singh Grover , Changliu Liu , Katia Sycara

Safety is one of the fundamental problems in robotics. Recently, one-step or multi-step optimal control problems for discrete-time nonlinear dynamical system were formulated to offer tracking stability using control Lyapunov functions…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2021-10-04 Jun Zeng , Zhongyu Li , Koushil Sreenath

Control barrier functions (CBFs) have become a popular tool to enforce safety of a control system. CBFs are commonly utilized in a quadratic program formulation (CBF-QP) as safety-critical constraints. A class $\mathcal{K}$ function in CBFs…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2022-04-12 Hengbo Ma , Bike Zhang , Masayoshi Tomizuka , Koushil Sreenath

We propose a stochastic Model Predictive Control (MPC) framework that ensures closed-loop chance constraint satisfaction for linear systems with general sub-Gaussian process and measurement noise. By considering sub-Gaussian noise, we can…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-10-20 Yunke Ao , Johannes Köhler , Manish Prajapat , Yarden As , Melanie Zeilinger , Philipp Fürnstahl , Andreas Krause

Designing safety-critical control for robotic manipulators is challenging, especially in a cluttered environment. First, the actual trajectory of a manipulator might deviate from the planned one due to the complex collision environments and…

Robotics · Computer Science 2022-11-14 Xuda Ding , Han Wang , Yi Ren , Yu Zheng , Cailian Chen , Jianping He

This letter addresses the constraint compatibility problem of control barrier functions (CBFs), which occurs when a safety-critical CBF requires a system to apply more control effort than it is capable of generating. This inevitably leads…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-02-28 Logan E. Beaver

Control barrier functions (CBFs) are widely used in safety-critical controllers. However, constructing a valid CBF is challenging, especially under nonlinear or non-convex constraints and for high relative degree systems. Meanwhile, finding…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2022-10-12 Bolun Dai , Prashanth Krishnamurthy , Farshad Khorrami

Modern nonlinear control theory seeks to endow systems with properties of stability and safety, and have been deployed successfully in multiple domains. Despite this success, model uncertainty remains a significant challenge in synthesizing…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2019-12-24 Andrew Taylor , Andrew Singletary , Yisong Yue , Aaron Ames

Control barrier functions (CBFs) are a popular tool for safety certification of nonlinear dynamical control systems. Recently, CBFs represented as neural networks have shown great promise due to their expressiveness and applicability to a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-15 Nikolaus Vertovec , Frederik Baymler Mathiesen , Thom Badings , Luca Laurenti , Alessandro Abate

State estimation uncertainty is prevalent in real-world applications, hindering the application of safety-critical control. Existing methods address this by strengthening a Control Barrier Function (CBF) condition either to handle actuation…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-03-31 Xiao Tan , Rahal Nanayakkara , Paulo Tabuada , Aaron D. Ames

We study feasibility guarantees for safety filters developed using Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) when a safe set is defined using the pointwise minimum of continuously differentiable functions, a construction that is common for the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-04-13 Anil Alan , Bart De Schutter

Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) have become powerful tools for ensuring safety in nonlinear systems. However, finding valid CBFs that guarantee persistent safety and feasibility remains an open challenge, especially in systems with input…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-03-05 Taekyung Kim , Robin Inho Kee , Dimitra Panagou

We consider maximization of stochastic monotone continuous submodular functions (CSF) with a diminishing return property. Existing algorithms only guarantee the performance \textit{in expectation}, and do not bound the probability of…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2023-03-22 Evan Becker , Jingdong Gao , Ted Zadouri , Baharan Mirzasoleiman

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

Ensuring safety under unknown and stochastic dynamics remains a significant challenge in reinforcement learning (RL). In this paper, we propose a model predictive control (MPC)-based safe RL framework, called Probabilistic Ensembles with…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-04-09 Ali Umut Kaypak , Prashanth Krishnamurthy , Farshad Khorrami

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

This study proposes a hybrid safety verification framework for closed-loop multi-agent systems under bounded stochastic disturbances. The proposed approach augments control barrier functions with a novel $\psi$-weighted formulation that…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-09-25 Venkat Margapuri , Garik Kazanjian , Naren Kosaraju

Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) have emerged as efficient tools to address the safe navigation problem for robot applications. However, synthesizing informative and obstacle motion-aware CBFs online using real-time sensor data remains…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-12-02 Xin Yin , Chenyang Liang , Yanning Guo , Jie Mei

This tutorial provides a critical review of the practical application of Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) in robotic safety. While the theoretical foundations of CBFs are well-established, I identify a recurring gap between the mathematical…

Robotics · Computer Science 2026-03-10 Taekyung Kim