Aerial manipulation combines the maneuverability of multirotors with the dexterity of robotic arms to perform complex tasks in cluttered spaces. Yet planning safe, dynamically feasible trajectories remains difficult due to whole-body collision avoidance and the conservativeness of common geometric abstractions such as bounding boxes or ellipsoids. We present a whole-body motion planning and safety-critical control framework for aerial manipulators built on superquadrics (SQs). Using an SQ-plus-proxy representation, we model both the vehicle and obstacles with differentiable, geometry-accurate surfaces. Leveraging this representation, we introduce a maximum-clearance planner that fuses Voronoi diagrams with an equilibrium-manifold formulation to generate smooth, collision-aware trajectories. We further design a safety-critical controller that jointly enforces thrust limits and collision avoidance via high-order control barrier functions. In simulation, our approach outperforms sampling-based planners in cluttered environments, producing faster, safer, and smoother trajectories and exceeding ellipsoid-based baselines in geometric fidelity. Actual experiments on a physical aerial-manipulation platform confirm feasibility and robustness, demonstrating consistent performance across simulation and hardware settings. The video can be found at https://youtu.be/hQYKwrWf1Ak.

Learning unknown dynamics under environmental (or external) constraints is fundamental to many fields (e.g., modern robotics), particularly challenging when constraint information is only locally available and uncertain. Existing approaches requiring global constraints or using probabilistic filtering fail to fully exploit the geometric structure inherent in local measurements (by using, e.g., sensors) and constraints. This paper presents a geometric framework unifying measurements, constraints, and dynamics learning through a fiber bundle structure over the state space. This naturally induced geometric structure enables measurement-aware Control Barrier Functions that adapt to local sensing (or measurement) conditions. By integrating Neural ODEs, our framework learns continuous-time dynamics while preserving geometric constraints, with theoretical guarantees of learning convergence and constraint satisfaction dependent on sensing quality. The geometric framework not only enables efficient dynamics learning but also suggests promising directions for integration with reinforcement learning approaches. Extensive simulations demonstrate significant improvements in both learning efficiency and constraint satisfaction over traditional methods, especially under limited and uncertain sensing conditions.

This paper addresses the challenge of integrating explicit hard constraints into the control barrier function (CBF) framework for ensuring safety in autonomous systems, including robots. We propose a novel data-driven method to derive CBFs from these hard constraints in practical scenarios. Our approach assumes that the forward invariant safe set is either a subset or equal to the constrained set. The process consists of two main steps. First, we randomly sample states within the constraint boundaries and identify inputs meeting the time derivative criteria of the hard constraint; this iterative process converges using the Jaccard index. Next, we formulate CBFs that enclose the safe set using the sampled boundaries. This enables the creation of a control-invariant safe set, approaching the maximum attainable level of control invariance. This approach, therefore, addresses the complexities posed by complex autonomous systems with constrained control input spaces, culminating in a control-invariant safe set that closely approximates the maximal control invariant set.

This paper presents a safety-critical control framework tailored for quadruped robots equipped with a roller arm, particularly when performing locomotive tasks such as autonomous robotic inspection in complex, multi-tiered environments. In this study, we consider the problem of operating a quadrupedal robot in distillation columns, locomoting on column trays and transitioning between these trays with a roller arm. To address this problem, our framework encompasses the following key elements: 1) Trajectory generation for seamless transitions between columns, 2) Foothold re-planning in regions deemed unsafe, 3) Safety-critical control incorporating control barrier functions, 4) Gait transitions based on safety levels, and 5) A low-level controller. Our comprehensive framework, comprising these components, enables autonomous and safe locomotion across multiple layers. We incorporate reduced-order and full-body models to ensure safety, integrating safety-critical control and footstep re-planning approaches. We validate the effectiveness of our proposed framework through practical experiments involving a quadruped robot equipped with a roller arm, successfully navigating and transitioning between different levels within the column tray structure.

We present our approach for the development, validation and deployment of a data-driven decision-making function for the automated control of a vehicle. The decisionmaking function, based on an artificial neural network is trained to steer the mobile robot SPIDER towards a predefined, static path to a target point while avoiding collisions with obstacles along the path. The training is conducted by means of proximal policy optimisation (PPO), a state of the art algorithm from the field of reinforcement learning. The resulting controller is validated using KPIs quantifying its capability to follow a given path and its reactivity on perceived obstacles along the path. The corresponding tests are carried out in the training environment. Additionally, the tests shall be performed as well in the robotics situation Gazebo and in real world scenarios. For the latter the controller is deployed on a FPGA-based development platform, the FRACTAL platform, and integrated into the SPIDER software stack.

Guaranteeing safe behavior on complex autonomous systems -- from cars to walking robots -- is challenging due to the inherently high dimensional nature of these systems and the corresponding complex models that may be difficult to determine in practice. With this as motivation, this paper presents a safety-critical control framework that leverages reduced order models to ensure safety on the full order dynamics -- even when these models are subject to disturbances and bounded inputs (e.g., actuation limits). To handle input constraints, the backup set method is reformulated in the context of reduced order models, and conditions for the provably safe behavior of the full order system are derived. Then, the input-to-state safe backup set method is introduced to provide robustness against discrepancies between the reduced order model and the actual system. Finally, the proposed framework is demonstrated in high-fidelity simulation, where a quadrupedal robot is safely navigated around an obstacle with legged locomotion by the help of the unicycle model.

Endowing nonlinear systems with safe behavior is increasingly important in modern control. This task is particularly challenging for real-life control systems that must operate safely in dynamically changing environments. This paper develops a framework for safety-critical control in dynamic environments, by establishing the notion of environmental control barrier functions (ECBFs). The framework is able to guarantee safety even in the presence of input delay, by accounting for the evolution of the environment during the delayed response of the system. The underlying control synthesis relies on predicting the future state of the system and the environment over the delay interval, with robust safety guarantees against prediction errors. The efficacy of the proposed method is demonstrated by a simple adaptive cruise control problem and a more complex robotics application on a Segway platform.

MTA-BME Lendület Machine Tool Vibration Research Group, Department of Applied Mechanics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest 1111, Hungary (kiss a@mm.bme.hu). Abstract: Safe longitudinal control is discussed for a connected automated truck traveling behind a preceding connected vehicle. A controller is proposed based on control barrier function theory and predictor feedback for provably safe, collision-free behavior by taking into account the significant response time of the truck as input delay and the uncertainty of its dynamical model as input disturbance. The benefits of the proposed controller compared to control designs that neglect the delay or treat the delay as disturbance are shown by numerical simulations. Keywords: control, safety, time delay, disturbance, connected automated vehicle 1. INTRODUCTION Control systems are often subject to strict safety requirements that must be met before deployment in practice.