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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.01147 |
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| _version_ | 1866915913145516032 |
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| author | Liu, Jixian Mallada, Enrique |
| author_facet | Liu, Jixian Mallada, Enrique |
| contents | 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 design CBFs in reduced-order models (RoMs) while regulating full-order models' (FoMs) dynamics at the same time. Traditional Lyapunov tracking functions are required to decrease monotonically, and systematic synthesis methods for such functions exist only for fully-actuated systems. To overcome this limitation, we introduce Recurrent Tracking Functions (RTFs), which replace the monotonic decay requirement with a weaker finite-time recurrence condition. This relaxation permits transient deviations of tracking errors while ensuring safety. By integrating CBFs for RoMs with RTFs, we construct recurrent CBFs (RCBFs) whose zero-superlevel set is control $τ$-recurrent, and guarantee safety for all initial states in such a set when RTFs are satisfied. We establish theoretical safety guarantees and validate the approach through a proof-of-concept numerical experiment, demonstrating RTFs' effectiveness and the safety of FoMs. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_01147 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Safety-Critical Control via Recurrent Tracking Functions Liu, Jixian Mallada, Enrique Systems and Control 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 design CBFs in reduced-order models (RoMs) while regulating full-order models' (FoMs) dynamics at the same time. Traditional Lyapunov tracking functions are required to decrease monotonically, and systematic synthesis methods for such functions exist only for fully-actuated systems. To overcome this limitation, we introduce Recurrent Tracking Functions (RTFs), which replace the monotonic decay requirement with a weaker finite-time recurrence condition. This relaxation permits transient deviations of tracking errors while ensuring safety. By integrating CBFs for RoMs with RTFs, we construct recurrent CBFs (RCBFs) whose zero-superlevel set is control $τ$-recurrent, and guarantee safety for all initial states in such a set when RTFs are satisfied. We establish theoretical safety guarantees and validate the approach through a proof-of-concept numerical experiment, demonstrating RTFs' effectiveness and the safety of FoMs. |
| title | Safety-Critical Control via Recurrent Tracking Functions |
| topic | Systems and Control |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.01147 |