Verification and Synthesis of Discrete-Time Control Barrier Functions

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Shakhesi, Erfan, Heemels, W. P. M. H., Katriniok, Alexander
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866911171555098624
author Shakhesi, Erfan
Heemels, W. P. M. H.
Katriniok, Alexander
author_facet Shakhesi, Erfan
Heemels, W. P. M. H.
Katriniok, Alexander
contents Discrete-time Control Barrier Functions (DTCBFs) have recently attracted interest for guaranteeing safety and synthesizing safe controllers for discrete-time dynamical systems. This paper addresses the open challenges of verifying candidate DTCBFs and synthesizing DTCBFs for general nonlinear discrete-time systems with input constraints and arbitrary safe sets. In particular, we propose a branch-and-bound method, inspired by the $α$BB algorithm, for the verification of candidate DTCBFs in both cases, whether a corresponding control policy is known or unknown. We prove that this method, in a finite number of iterations, either verifies a given candidate function as a valid DTCBF or falsifies it by providing a counterexample (within predefined tolerances). As a second main contribution, we propose a novel bilevel optimization approach to synthesize a DTCBF and a corresponding control policy in finite time. This involves determining the unknown coefficients of a parameterized DTCBF and a parameterized control policy. Furthermore, we introduce various strategies to reduce the computational burden of the bilevel approach. We also demonstrate our methods using numerical case studies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_18685
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Verification and Synthesis of Discrete-Time Control Barrier Functions
Shakhesi, Erfan
Heemels, W. P. M. H.
Katriniok, Alexander
Optimization and Control
Systems and Control
Discrete-time Control Barrier Functions (DTCBFs) have recently attracted interest for guaranteeing safety and synthesizing safe controllers for discrete-time dynamical systems. This paper addresses the open challenges of verifying candidate DTCBFs and synthesizing DTCBFs for general nonlinear discrete-time systems with input constraints and arbitrary safe sets. In particular, we propose a branch-and-bound method, inspired by the $α$BB algorithm, for the verification of candidate DTCBFs in both cases, whether a corresponding control policy is known or unknown. We prove that this method, in a finite number of iterations, either verifies a given candidate function as a valid DTCBF or falsifies it by providing a counterexample (within predefined tolerances). As a second main contribution, we propose a novel bilevel optimization approach to synthesize a DTCBF and a corresponding control policy in finite time. This involves determining the unknown coefficients of a parameterized DTCBF and a parameterized control policy. Furthermore, we introduce various strategies to reduce the computational burden of the bilevel approach. We also demonstrate our methods using numerical case studies.
title Verification and Synthesis of Discrete-Time Control Barrier Functions
topic Optimization and Control
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.18685