Using Control Barrier Functions in Robotics

Robots can get stranded with dead batteries during critical missions because existing energy management methods lack formal guarantees and have limited flexibility across different mission types and environments. Energy efficiency is also essential in a changing climate. Hassan Fouad and Vivek Shankar Varadharajan have developed ES-CBF (Energy Sufficiency Control Barrier Functions) to solve this problem: ✅ Guarantee robots return to charging stations before battery depletion ✅ Modular - works with ANY existing path or mission planner ✅ Mission-agnostic - adapts to exploration, patrol, surveillance, etc. ✅ Mathematically proven energy sufficiency throughout missions 📊 Results 24% better energy utilization vs traditional threshold methods Zero mission failures due to energy depletion in tests Tested in simulation and real-world robot experiments ES-CBF is particularly suitable for: 🔍 Search & rescue operations 🏗️ Construction site monitoring 🌌 Space exploration missions 🏭 Industrial automation 🚗 Autonomous vehicle fleets Published in Autonomous Robots (2025) - Moving us closer to long-duration robotic deployments! Work done at Polytechnique Montréal and Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute Paper: https://rdcu.be/ezNC4 #Robotics #AI #EnergyEfficiency #AutonomousSystems #Research #Innovation

What if humanoid robots could operate safely, even when teleoperated or running complex whole-body tasks? [⚡Join 2500+ Robotics enthusiasts - https://lnkd.in/dYxB9iCh] A team from Carnegie Mellon University - Yifan Sun, Rui Chen, Kai S. Yun, Yikuan Fang, Sebin Jung, Feihan Li, Bowei Li, Weiye Zhao, and Changliu Liu Introduces SPARK, a modular toolbox for safe humanoid autonomy and teleoperation, complete with benchmarks, algorithms, and real-world deployment support. SPARK integrates state-of-the-art safe control methods—like Safe Set Algorithm, Control Barrier Functions, and others—into a unified control framework configurable across task types, robots, and environments. It supports seamless sim-to-real application: users can define safety constraints, tweak sensitivity, test in simulation, and deploy on physical platforms like the Unitree G1 using external sensors (Apple Vision Pro or mocap). This work addresses a core challenge: ensuring humanoids behave safely during complex interactions and teleoperated commands. SPARK makes safety plug-and-play rather than handcrafted for each scenario. If dependable safety modules can be integrated so easily, what new human-in-the-loop or autonomous tasks should we deploy humanoids to tackle next? Paper: https://lnkd.in/epnA9-54 Project Page & Code: https://lnkd.in/eMAgY_TS Video: https://lnkd.in/efYGuwFy #HumanoidRobotics #SafeControl #Teleoperation #ModularRobotics #ICRA2025

Read our latest work "Switched control barrier functions-based safe docking control strategy for a planar floating platform" published in the Control Engineering Practice, Volume 158, May 2025, lead by the excellent researchers Akshit Saradagi, Viswa Narayanan Sankaranarayanan, Avijit Banerjee and Sumeet Satpute, PhD. Video: https://lnkd.in/gfwyeKmG Link to the article: https://lnkd.in/gQGEuhcV #autonomy #AI #space #spaceautonomy #satellites #CBF #control Abstract: The work presents and experimentally validate a safe docking control strategy designed for an experimental planar floating platform, called the Slider. Three degrees-of-freedom (DOF) platforms like the Slider are used extensively in space industry and academia to emulate micro-gravity conditions on Earth, for validating in-plane Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) algorithms. The Slider uses an air cushion (induced by air bearings) to levitate on a smooth flat table, thus emulating the in-plane zero-gravity motion of a spacecraft in orbit. The proposed docking control strategy is applicable in the in-plane approach and docking phases of space docking missions, and is based on the Control Barrier Functions (CBF) approach, where a safe set (a Cardioid), capturing the clearance and direction-of-approach constraints, is rendered positively forward invariant. To enable precise and safe docking in the presence of unmodeled dynamics, disturbances induced by the tether and drifts induced by the non-flat floating surface, we present a switching strategy among the zero and positive level sets of a Cardioid function. In the approach phase, the positive contour of the Cardioid function smoothly steers the Slider platform into the neighborhood of a deadlock point, which is designed to be at a safe distance from the docking port. In the neighborhood of the deadlock point, Slider corrects its proximity and heading until its configuration is well-suited to enter the docking phase.