Output Feedback Backup Control Barrier Functions: Safety Guarantees Under Input Bounds and State Estimation Error

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: van Wijk, David E. J., Molnar, Tamas G., Coogan, Samuel, Majji, Manoranjan, Ames, Aaron D., Burdick, Joel W.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author van Wijk, David E. J.
Molnar, Tamas G.
Coogan, Samuel
Majji, Manoranjan
Ames, Aaron D.
Burdick, Joel W.
author_facet van Wijk, David E. J.
Molnar, Tamas G.
Coogan, Samuel
Majji, Manoranjan
Ames, Aaron D.
Burdick, Joel W.
contents Guaranteeing the safety of controllers is vital for real-world applications, but is markedly difficult when the states are not perfectly known and when the control inputs are bounded. Backup control barrier functions (bCBFs) use predictions of the flow under a prescribed controller to achieve safety in the presence of bounded inputs and perfect state information. However, when only an estimate of the true state is known, this flow may not be precisely computed, as the initial condition is unknown. Furthermore, the true flow evolves using feedback from the estimated state, thus introducing coupling between known and unknown flows. To address these challenges, we propose a technique that leverages an uncertainty envelope centered around the estimated flow and show that ensuring the safety of this envelope guarantees that the true state satisfies the safety constraints. Additionally, we show that in the presence of state uncertainty, using the resulting Output Feedback Backup Control Barrier Functions (O-bCBFs), there always exists a feasible control input that can guarantee the safety of the true state, even in the presence of input constraints.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_19893
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Output Feedback Backup Control Barrier Functions: Safety Guarantees Under Input Bounds and State Estimation Error
van Wijk, David E. J.
Molnar, Tamas G.
Coogan, Samuel
Majji, Manoranjan
Ames, Aaron D.
Burdick, Joel W.
Systems and Control
Guaranteeing the safety of controllers is vital for real-world applications, but is markedly difficult when the states are not perfectly known and when the control inputs are bounded. Backup control barrier functions (bCBFs) use predictions of the flow under a prescribed controller to achieve safety in the presence of bounded inputs and perfect state information. However, when only an estimate of the true state is known, this flow may not be precisely computed, as the initial condition is unknown. Furthermore, the true flow evolves using feedback from the estimated state, thus introducing coupling between known and unknown flows. To address these challenges, we propose a technique that leverages an uncertainty envelope centered around the estimated flow and show that ensuring the safety of this envelope guarantees that the true state satisfies the safety constraints. Additionally, we show that in the presence of state uncertainty, using the resulting Output Feedback Backup Control Barrier Functions (O-bCBFs), there always exists a feasible control input that can guarantee the safety of the true state, even in the presence of input constraints.
title Output Feedback Backup Control Barrier Functions: Safety Guarantees Under Input Bounds and State Estimation Error
topic Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.19893