This paper investigates the state estimation problem for a class of complex networks, in which the dynamics of each node is subject to Gaussian noise, system uncertainties and nonlinearities. Based on a regularized least-squares approach, the estimation problem is reformulated as an optimization problem, solving for a solution in a distributed way by utilizing a decoupling technique. Then, based on this solution, a class of estimators is designed to handle the system dynamics and constraints. A novel feature of this design lies in the unified modeling of uncertainties and nonlinearities, the decoupling of nodes, and the construction of recursive approximate covariance matrices for the optimization problem. Furthermore, the feasibility of the proposed estimators and the boundedness of the mean-square errors are ensured under a developed criterion, which is easier to check than some typical estimation strategies including the linear matrix inequalities-based and the variance-constrained ones. Finally, the effectiveness of the theoretical results is verified by a numerical simulation.
This paper focuses on safety critical control with sector-bounded uncertainties at the plant input. The uncertainties can represent nonlinear and/or time-varying components. We propose a new robust control barrier function (RCBF) approach to enforce safety requirements in the presence of these uncertainties. The primary objective is to minimally alter the given baseline control command to guarantee safety in the presence of modeled uncertainty. The resulting min-norm optimization problem can be recast as a Second-Order Cone Program (SOCP) to enable online implementation. Properties of this con…
This paper introduces a two-level robust approach to estimate the unknown states of a large-scale power system while the measurements and network parameters are subjected to uncertainties. The bounded data uncertainty (BDU) considered in the power network is a structured uncertainty which is inevitable in practical systems due to error in transmission lines, inaccurate modelling, unmodeled dynamics, parameter variations, and other various reasons. In the proposed approach, the corresponding network is first decomposed into smaller subsystems (areas), and then a two-level algorithm is presented…
Robust autonomy stacks require tight integration of perception, motion planning, and control layers, but these layers often inadequately incorporate inherent perception and prediction uncertainties, either ignoring them altogether or making questionable assumptions of Gaussianity. Robots with nonlinear dynamics and complex sensing modalities operating in an uncertain environment demand more careful consideration of how uncertainties propagate across stack layers. We propose a framework to integrate perception, motion planning, and control by explicitly incorporating perception and prediction u…
Stabilizing controller design and region of attraction (RoA) estimation are essential in nonlinear control. Moreover, it is challenging to implement a control Lyapunov function (CLF) in practice when only partial knowledge of the system is available. We propose a learning framework that can synthesize state-feedback controllers and a CLF for control-affine nonlinear systems with unstructured uncertainties. Based on a regularity condition on these uncertainties, we model them as bounded disturbances and prove that a CLF for the nominal system (estimate of the true system) is an input-to-state s…
Model predictive control is a control approach that minimizes a stage cost over a predicted system trajectory based on a model of the system and is capable of handling state and input constraints. For uncertain models, robust or adaptive methods can be used. Because the system model is used to calculate the control law, the closed-loop behavior of the system and thus its performance, measured by the sum of the stage costs, are related to the model used. If it is adapted online, a performance bound is difficult to obtain and thus the impact of model adaptation is mostly unknown. This work provi…
This paper examines the robust (strong) H-infinity norm of a linear time-invariant system with discrete delays. The considered system is subject to real-valued, structured, Frobenius norm bounded uncertainties on the coefficient matrices. The robust H-infinity norm is the worst case value of the H-infinity norm over the realisations of the system and hence an important measure of robust performance in control engineering. However this robust H-infinity norm is a fragile measure, as for a particular realization of the uncertainties the H-infinity norm might be sensitive to arbitrarily small per…
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)（计算机科学与人工智能实验室（CSAIL））；Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)（麻省理工学院（MIT））
In this paper, we address the real-time risk-bounded safety verification problem of continuous-time state trajectories of autonomous systems in the presence of uncertain time-varying nonlinear safety constraints. Risk is defined as the probability of not satisfying the uncertain safety constraints. Existing approaches to address the safety verification problems under uncertainties either are limited to particular classes of uncertainties and safety constraints, e.g., Gaussian uncertainties and linear constraints, or rely on sampling based methods. In this paper, we provide a fast convex algori…
This brief addresses the distributed consensus problem of nonlinear multi-agent systems under a general directed communication topology. Each agent is governed by higher-order dynamics with mismatched uncertainties, multiple completely unknown high-frequency gains, and external disturbances. The main contribution of this brief is to present a new distributed consensus algorithm, enabling the control input of each agent to require minimal information from its neighboring agents, that is, only their output information. To this end, a dynamic system is explicitly constructed for each agent to gen…
We consider the problem of verifying safety for a pair of identical integrator agents in continuous time with compact set-valued input uncertainties. We encode this verification problem as that of certifying or falsifying the intersection of their reach sets. We transcribe the same into a variational problem, namely that of minimizing the support function of the difference of the two reach sets over the unit sphere. We illustrate the computational tractability of the proposed formulation by developing two cases in detail, viz. when the inputs have time-varying norm-bounded and generic hyperrec…
In this paper, we address the trajectory planning problem in uncertain nonconvex static and dynamic environments that contain obstacles with probabilistic location, size, and geometry. To address this problem, we provide a risk bounded trajectory planning method that looks for continuous-time trajectories with guaranteed bounded risk over the planning time horizon. Risk is defined as the probability of collision with uncertain obstacles. Existing approaches to address risk bounded trajectory planning problems either are limited to Gaussian uncertainties and convex obstacles or rely on sampling…
In this work, we propose a tube-based MPC scheme for state- and input-constrained linear systems subject to dynamic uncertainties characterized by dynamic integral quadratic constraints (IQCs). In particular, we extend the framework of $ρ$-hard IQCs for exponential stability analysis to external inputs. This result yields that the error between the true uncertain system and the nominal prediction model is bounded by an exponentially stable scalar system. In the proposed tube-based MPC scheme, the state of this error bounding system is predicted along with the nominal model and used as a scalin…
We address the risk bounded trajectory optimization problem of stochastic nonlinear robotic systems. More precisely, we consider the motion planning problem in which the robot has stochastic nonlinear dynamics and uncertain initial locations, and the environment contains multiple dynamic uncertain obstacles with arbitrary probabilistic distributions. The goal is to plan a sequence of control inputs for the robot to navigate to the target while bounding the probability of colliding with obstacles. Existing approaches to address risk bounded trajectory optimization problems are limited to partic…
