# Safety Barrier Certificates for Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Systems

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.00651 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.00651/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 2 Sep 2016.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Risk-aware Safe Control for Decentralized Multi-agent Systems via Dynamic Responsibility Allocation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.13467/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper presents a formal framework for collision avoidance in multi-robot systems, wherein an existing controller is modified in a minimally invasive fashion to ensure safety. We build this framework through the use of control barrier functions (CBFs) which guarantee forward invariance of a safe set; these yield safety barrier certificates in the context of heterogeneous robot dynamics subject to acceleration bounds. Moreover, safety barrier certificates are extended to a distributed control framework, wherein neighboring agent dynamics are unknown, through local parameter identification. The end result is an optimization-based controller that formally guarantees collision free behavior in heterogeneous multi-agent systems by minimally modifying the desired controller via safety barrier constraints. This formal result is verified in simulation on a multi-robot system consisting of both cumbersome and agile robots, is demonstrated experimentally on a system with a Magellan Pro robot and three Khepera III robots.