Paulo Tabuada

Lyapunov’s theorem provides a fundamental characterization of the stability of dynamical systems. This paper presents a categorical framework for Lyapunov theory, generalizing stability analysis with Lyapunov functions categorically. Core to our approach is the set of axioms underlying a setting for stability , which give the necessary ingredients for “doing Lyapunov theory” in a category of interest. With these minimal assumptions, we define the stability of equilibria, formulate Lyapunov morphisms , and demonstrate that the existence of Lyapunov morphisms is necessary and sufficient for establishing the stability of flows. To illustrate these constructions, we show how classical notions of stability, e.g., for continuous and discrete time dynamical systems, are captured by this categorical framework for Lyapunov theory. Finally, to demonstrate the extensibility of our framework, we illustrate how enriched categories, e.g., Lawvere metric spaces, yield settings for stability enabling one to “do Lyapunov theory” in enriched categories.

This paper presents a static event-triggered control strategy for multivariable Newton-based extremum seeking. The proposed method integrates event-triggered actuation into the Newton-based optimization framework to reduce control updates while maintaining rapid convergence to the extremum. Unlike traditional gradient-based extremum seeking, where the convergence rate depends on the unknown Hessian of the cost function, the proposed approach employs a dynamic estimator of the Hessian inverse, formulated as a Riccati equation, enabling user-assignable convergence rates. The event-triggering mechanism is designed to minimize unnecessary actuation updates while preserving stability and performance. Using averaging theory, we establish local stability results and exponential convergence to a neighborhood of the unknown extremum point. Additionally, numerical simulations illustrate the benefits of the proposed approach over gradient-based and continuously actuated Newton-based extremum seeking, showing improved convergence rates and reduced control update frequency, leading to more efficient implementation in real-time optimization scenarios.

Measurements and state estimates are often imperfect in control practice, posing challenges for safety-critical applications, where safety guarantees rely on accurate state information. In the presence of estimation errors, several prior robust control barrier function (R-CBF) formulations have imposed strict conditions on the input. These methods can be overly conservative and can introduce issues such as infeasibility, high control effort, etc. This work proposes a systematic method to improve R-CBFs, and demonstrates its advantages on a tracked vehicle that navigates among multiple obstacles. A primary contribution is a new optimization-based online parameter adaptation scheme that reduces the conservativeness of existing R-CBFs. In order to reduce the complexity of the parameter optimization, we merge several safety constraints into one unified numerical CBF via Poisson’s equation. We further address the dual relative degree issue that typically causes difficulty in vehicle tracking. Experimental trials demonstrate the overall performance improvement of our approach over existing formulations.

Safety-critical control is a crucial aspect of modern systems, and Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) have gained popularity as the framework of choice for ensuring safety. However, implementing a CBF requires exact knowledge of the true state, a requirement that is often violated in real-world applications where only noisy or estimated state information is available. This paper introduces the notion of Robust Control Barrier Functions (R-CBF) for ensuring safety under such state uncertainty without requiring prior knowledge of the magnitude of uncertainty. We formally characterize the class of robustifying terms that ensure robust closed-loop safety and show how a robustly safe controller can be constructed. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach through simulations and compare it to existing methods, highlighting the additional robustness and convergence guarantees it provides.

Modern autopilot systems are prone to sensor attacks that can jeopardize flight safety. To mitigate this risk, we proposed a modular solution: the secure safety filter, which extends the well-established control barrier function (CBF)-based safety filter to account for, and mitigate, sensor attacks. This module consists of a secure state reconstructor (which generates plausible states) and a safety filter (which computes the safe control input that is closest to the nominal one). Differing from existing work focusing on linear, noise-free systems, the proposed secure safety filter handles bounded measurement noise and, by leveraging reduced-order model techniques, is applicable to the nonlinear dynamics of drones. Software-in-the-loop simulations and drone hardware experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the secure safety filter in rendering the system safe in the presence of sensor attacks.

This paper presents a secure safety filter design for nonlinear systems under sensor spoofing attacks. Existing approaches primarily focus on linear systems which limits their applications in real-world scenarios. In this work, we extend these results to nonlinear systems in a principled way. We introduce exact observability maps that abstract specific state estimation algorithms and extend them to a secure version capable of handling sensor attacks. Our generalization also applies to the relaxed observability case, with slightly relaxed guarantees. More importantly, we propose a secure safety filter design in both exact and relaxed cases, which incorporates secure state estimation and a control barrier function-enabled safety filter. The proposed approach provides theoretical safety guarantees for nonlinear systems in the presence of sensor attacks. We numerically validate our analysis on a unicycle vehicle equipped with redundant yet partly compromised sensors.

Cyber-physical systems are prone to sensor attacks that can compromise safety. A common approach to synthesizing controllers robust to sensor attacks is secure state reconstruction (SSR) -- but this is computationally expensive, hindering real-time control. In this paper, we take a safety-critical perspective on mitigating severe sensor attacks, leading to a computationally efficient solution. Namely, we design feedback controllers that ensure system safety by directly computing control actions from past input-output data. Instead of fully solving the SSR problem, we use conservative bounds on a control barrier function (CBF) condition, which we obtain by extending the recent eigendecomposition-based SSR approach to severe sensor attack settings. Additionally, we present an extended approach that solves a smaller-scale subproblem of the SSR problem, taking on some computational burden to mitigate the conservatism in the main approach. Numerical comparisons confirm that the traditional SSR approaches suffer from combinatorial issues, while our approach achieves safety guarantees with greater computational efficiency.

Real-time cyber-physical systems (CPS) rely on Perception-Cognition-Actuation (PCA) pipelines to enable autonomous observation, decisionmaking, and action execution. Closed-loop PCA systems utilize feedback-driven control to iteratively adapt actions in response to real-time environmental changes whereas open-loop PCA systems execute single actions without iterative feedback. The overall performance of these systems is inherently tied to the models selected for each pipeline component. Recent advancements in neural networks, particularly for perception tasks, have substantially enhanced CPS capabilities but have introduced significant complexity into the PCA pipeline. While traditional research [1] often evaluates perception models in static, controlled settings, it fails to account for the cascading latency and accuracy trade-offs that manifest across interconnected PCA modules in dynamic, real-time applications. Additionally, the proliferation of distributed device-edge-cloud architectures [2] has expanded computational possibilities but introduced new challenges in balancing latency and accuracy with resource constraints. The holistic impact of model selection, deployment platforms, and network conditions on application performance in real-time scenarios remains under-explored.