Safety-Critical Control With Limited Information

Abstract

This letter explores safety-critical control of nonlinear systems in settings where a finite-rate communication channel stands in the path of state feedback. We show that the mere existence of a nominally safe control law (certified by an exponential barrier function) suffices to provide safe control in these limited-information settings. We introduce the notion of “safety escape time”, the minimum time a system takes to become unsafe in the absence of actuation. The results complement the existing literature on stabilizing control with limited information and represent a step towards a complete understanding of safety-critical control with limited information.