Sensor-Based Safety-Critical Control Using an Incremental Control Barrier Function Formulation via Reduced-Order Approximate Models

TL;DR

This paper introduces measurement-robust incremental control barrier functions (MRICBFs) that utilize sensor-based reduced-order models to provide formal safety guarantees for systems with uncertainties, addressing limitations of traditional adaptive control.

Contribution

It develops MRICBFs that incorporate sensor measurements into incremental control barrier functions, enabling real-time safety guarantees despite model uncertainties and sensor inaccuracies.

Findings

Successfully applied to a first-order system with sensor biases

Demonstrated in a hypersonic glide vehicle with multiple constraints

Provides formal safety guarantees under uncertain conditions

Abstract

The existing control barrier function literature generally relies on precise mathematical models to guarantee system safety, limiting their applicability in scenarios with parametric uncertainties. While incremental control techniques have shown promise in addressing model uncertainties in flight control applications, translating these approaches to safety-critical control presents significant challenges. This paper bridges this gap by introducing measurement-robust incremental control barrier functions (MRICBFs), which leverage sensor-based reduced-order models to provide formal safety guarantees for uncertain systems. By carefully addressing the challenges of sensor accuracy and approximation errors in the incremental formulation, our approach enables substituting specific model components with real-time sensor measurements while maintaining rigorous safety guarantees. This formulation overcomes the limitations of traditional adaptive control methods that adjust system parameters over time, enabling immediate and reliable safety measures for a class of model uncertainties. The efficacy of MRICBFs is demonstrated in two simulation case studies: a simple first-order system with time-varying sensor biases and a more complex overactuated hypersonic glide vehicle with multiple state constraints.