PreprintarXiv licencearXiv
Constructive Safety-Critical Control for a Class of Underactuated Systems: A Hierarchical Approach
Abstract
Underactuated systems with nontrivial geometry are abundant in practical robotic problems. However, little is known about constructive safety-critical control design in the presence of underactuation. In this work, we provide a constructive framework for synthesizing safe control architectures and control barrier functions for a class of quadrotor-like underactuated systems. By studying the geometry of their underactuation, we characterize when these systems have natural layered architectures useful for safety-critical control design. Using these architectures, we devise a constructive, hierarchical CBF synthesis procedure and provide conditions under which it succeeds.
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BibTeX
@misc{sa2026constructive,
title = {{Constructive Safety-Critical Control for a Class of Underactuated Systems: A Hierarchical Approach}},
author = {Massimiliano de Sa and Aaron D. Ames},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.10987},
eprint = {2610.10987},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.10987},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Constructive Safety-Critical Control for a Class of Underactuated Systems: A Hierarchical Approach
AU - Massimiliano de Sa
AU - Aaron D. Ames
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/07
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.10987
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.10987
AB - Underactuated systems with nontrivial geometry are abundant in practical robotic problems. However, little is known about constructive safety-critical control design in the presence of underactuation. In this work, we provide a constructive framework for synthesizing safe control architectures and control barrier functions for a class of quadrotor-like underactuated systems. By studying the geometry of their underactuation, we characterize when these systems have natural layered architectures useful for safety-critical control design. Using these architectures, we devise a constructive, hierarchical CBF synthesis procedure and provide conditions under which it succeeds.
ER -