Exact-Time Safety Recovery using Time-Varying Control Barrier Functions with Optimal Barrier Tracking

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Chen, Yingqing, Cassandras, Christos G., Xiao, Wei, Li, Anni
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866917400957419520
author Chen, Yingqing
Cassandras, Christos G.
Xiao, Wei
Li, Anni
author_facet Chen, Yingqing
Cassandras, Christos G.
Xiao, Wei
Li, Anni
contents This paper is motivated by controllers developed for autonomous vehicles which occasionally result into conditions where safety is no longer guaranteed. We develop an exact-time safety recovery framework for any control-affine nonlinear system when its state is outside a safe region using time-varying Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) with optimal barrier tracking. Unlike conventional formulations that provide only conservative upper bounds on recovery time convergence, the proposed approach guarantees recovery to the safe set at a prescribed time. The key mechanism is an active barrier tracking condition that forces the barrier function to follow exactly a designer-specified recovery trajectory. This transforms safety recovery into a trajectory design problem. The recovery trajectory is parameterized and optimized to achieve optimal performance while preserving feasibility under input constraints, avoiding the aggressive corrective actions typically induced by conventional finite-time formulations. The safety recovery framework is applied to the roundabout traffic coordination problem for Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs), where any initially violated safe merging constraint is replaced by an exact-time recovery barrier constraint to ensure safety guarantee restoration before CAV conflict points are reached. Simulation results demonstrate improved feasibility and performance.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_19119
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Exact-Time Safety Recovery using Time-Varying Control Barrier Functions with Optimal Barrier Tracking
Chen, Yingqing
Cassandras, Christos G.
Xiao, Wei
Li, Anni
Systems and Control
This paper is motivated by controllers developed for autonomous vehicles which occasionally result into conditions where safety is no longer guaranteed. We develop an exact-time safety recovery framework for any control-affine nonlinear system when its state is outside a safe region using time-varying Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) with optimal barrier tracking. Unlike conventional formulations that provide only conservative upper bounds on recovery time convergence, the proposed approach guarantees recovery to the safe set at a prescribed time. The key mechanism is an active barrier tracking condition that forces the barrier function to follow exactly a designer-specified recovery trajectory. This transforms safety recovery into a trajectory design problem. The recovery trajectory is parameterized and optimized to achieve optimal performance while preserving feasibility under input constraints, avoiding the aggressive corrective actions typically induced by conventional finite-time formulations. The safety recovery framework is applied to the roundabout traffic coordination problem for Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs), where any initially violated safe merging constraint is replaced by an exact-time recovery barrier constraint to ensure safety guarantee restoration before CAV conflict points are reached. Simulation results demonstrate improved feasibility and performance.
title Exact-Time Safety Recovery using Time-Varying Control Barrier Functions with Optimal Barrier Tracking
topic Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.19119