Yu Kawano , Bart Besselink , Jacquelien M.A. Scherpen
{"title":"On differential controllability and observability functions","authors":"Yu Kawano , Bart Besselink , Jacquelien M.A. Scherpen","doi":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101301","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101301","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Differential balancing theory for nonlinear model reduction relies on differential controllability and observability functions. In this paper, we further investigate them from two different perspectives. First, we establish novel connections between these differential energy functions and their incremental counterparts by assuming the existence of the corresponding optimal state feedback for each controllability function. Specifically, an upper bound on the incremental controllability/observability function is provided by the corresponding differential energy function. Conversely, an upper bound on the differential controllability function can be estimated from the incremental controllability function. Furthermore, the differential observability function can be constructed from the incremental observability function. Second, we explore the positive definiteness of the differential controllability/observability function in the context of controllability/observability and stability, generalizing well-known results on the Gramians of linear systems to the nonlinear case.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50489,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Control","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 101301"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145645603","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Riccardo Brumali, Guido Carnevale, Giuseppe Notarstefano
{"title":"Distributed learning and optimization of a multi-agent macroscopic probabilistic model","authors":"Riccardo Brumali, Guido Carnevale, Giuseppe Notarstefano","doi":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101332","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101332","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper, we propose MAcroscopic Consensus and micRoscopic gradient-based OPTimization (MACROPT), a novel distributed method for a network of agents able to learn a probabilistic macroscopic model and concurrently optimize it by acting on the microscopic agents’ states. The macroscopic model is defined through the aggregation of local kernels each representing a probabilistic feature of a single agent (e.g., its local sensing model), while the optimization is done with respect to a given cost index, e.g., the Kullback–Leibler divergence with respect to a target distribution. MACROPT improves the macroscopic model by microscopically coordinating the agents according to a distributed gradient-based policy. Concurrently, it allows each agent to locally learn the macroscopic model through a consensus-based mechanism. We analyze the resulting interconnected method through the lens of system theory. We demonstrate that MACROPT asymptotically converges to the set of stationary points of the nonconvex cost function. The theoretical findings are supported by numerical simulations in sensor network event-detection scenarios.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50489,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Control","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 101332"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145645449","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Victor Nan Fernandez-Ayala , Jorge Silva , Meng Guo , Dimos V. Dimarogonas
{"title":"Robust visual servoing under human supervision for assembly tasks","authors":"Victor Nan Fernandez-Ayala , Jorge Silva , Meng Guo , Dimos V. Dimarogonas","doi":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101312","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101312","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We propose a framework enabling mobile manipulators to reliably complete pick-and-place tasks for assembling structures from construction blocks. The picking uses an eye-in-hand visual servoing controller for object tracking with Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) to ensure fiducial markers in the blocks remain visible. An additional robot with an eye-to-hand setup ensures precise placement, critical for structural stability. We integrate human-in-the-loop capabilities for flexibility and fault correction and analyze robustness to camera pose errors, proposing adapted barrier functions to handle them. Lastly, experiments validate the framework on 6-DoF mobile arms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50489,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Control","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 101312"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145645447","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cyber–physical security of vehicles: Zero dynamics attacks against vehicle’s lateral dynamics","authors":"Ghadeer Shaaban , Hassen Fourati , Alain Kibangou , Christophe Prieur , Mohammad Pirani","doi":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101316","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101316","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Modern vehicles have evolved from mechanical systems to complex and connected ones controlled by numerous digital computers interconnected through internal networks. While this development has improved their efficiency and safety, it also brings new potential risks, particularly cyber-attacks. Several studies have explored the security of vehicle dynamics against such threats. Among these dynamics, the vehicle’s lateral dynamics are crucial for maintaining stability and control during turns and maneuvers, making them a key focus of research. However, only a few recent studies have specifically investigated the security of lateral dynamics. This paper explores the potential for zero dynamics attacks on the vehicle’s lateral dynamics, where the attacker can remain undetected by leaving no trace on the system’s outputs. Three scenarios are studied: when the output includes yaw rate, lateral acceleration, and their combination. These two critical measurements of a vehicle’s lateral motion are accessible through the inertial measurement units (IMU) in every vehicle. For each scenario, the impact of zero dynamics attacks on system performance is analyzed and illustrated through simulations. Finally, the paper provides recommendations for securing vehicles’ lateral dynamics against such attacks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50489,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Control","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 101316"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145645446","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mohammad Fahim Shakib, Alessio Moreschini, Giordano Scarciotti
{"title":"Dissipativity-preserving model reduction for linear systems using moment matching","authors":"Mohammad Fahim Shakib, Alessio Moreschini, Giordano Scarciotti","doi":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101290","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101290","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article introduces a novel model reduction method that preserves dissipativity properties while achieving moment matching at user-specified interpolation points. Building on the time-domain moment matching framework, our approach leverages the flexibility of free parameters in reduced-order models to ensure the preservation of <span><math><mrow><mo>(</mo><mi>Q</mi><mo>,</mo><mi>S</mi><mo>,</mo><mi>R</mi><mo>)</mo></mrow></math></span>-dissipativity, independent of the state dimension of the reduced model or the location of the interpolation points. By preserving dissipativity, this method enables more reliable and efficient reduced-order models for large-scale systems, while maintaining key physical and stability properties. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed approach.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50489,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Control","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 101290"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145645525","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Symbolic control: Unveiling free robustness margins","authors":"Youssef Ait Si , Antoine Girard , Adnane Saoud","doi":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101296","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101296","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper addresses the challenge of ensuring robustness in the presence of system perturbations for symbolic control techniques. Given a discrete-time control system that is related to its symbolic model by an alternating simulation relation. In this paper, we focus on computing the maximum robustness margin under which the symbolic model remains valid for a perturbed-version of the discrete-time control system. We first show that symbolic models are inherently equipped with a certain free robustness margins. We then provide constructive procedures to compute uniform and non-uniform (state and input dependent) robustness margins. We also show that the tightness of the robustness margin depends on the tightness of the reachability technique used to compute the symbolic model. We then explain how the computed robustness margin can be used for the sake of controller synthesis. Finally, we present two illustrative examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50489,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Control","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 101296"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145645600","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Robust stability and performance analysis in the presence of LTI and LTV uncertainties with bounded rates of variation","authors":"Tommaso Casati , Clément Roos , Jean-Marc Biannic , Hélène Evain","doi":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101298","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101298","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The assessment of robust stability and performance of systems affected by Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) and Linear Time-Varying (LTV) uncertainties with bounded rates of variation is still an open problem and yet of importance. To this purpose, Integral Quadratic Constraints (IQCs) can be used to derive sufficient conditions in terms of Frequency Domain Inequalities (FDIs) involving both dynamic and static multipliers. In this paper, a new fully frequency-based approach is proposed which offers two main advantages. Firstly, LTI uncertainties are characterized by the independent frequency-by-frequency multipliers of <span><math><mi>μ</mi></math></span>-analysis, which are much less conservative than those used in IQC approaches, for which a basis must be chosen arbitrarily. Secondly, sub-optimal (but relevant) solutions can be obtained by iteratively optimizing the static and frequency-dependent multipliers. This lightens the computational load and makes the method more applicable to real systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50489,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Control","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 101298"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145645601","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Beatrice M. Bălăceanu , Florin Stoican , Bogdan D. Ciubotaru , Ionela Prodan
{"title":"Derivative-free Kalman filtering for a six-wheeled rover","authors":"Beatrice M. Bălăceanu , Florin Stoican , Bogdan D. Ciubotaru , Ionela Prodan","doi":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101334","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101334","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The aim of this paper is to provide a Derivative-free Kalman Filter (DKF) for a six-wheeled rover, as an alternative to the classical Kalman Filters. The DKF removes the risks which the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), based on the computation of Jacobians, pose when implemented on platforms with limited numerical precision. It is also more computationally efficient than the Unscented Kalman filters, while retaining similar performance. The DKF is designed for an Ackermann steered six-wheeled rover which has nonlinear, coupled longitudinal and lateral dynamics. Starting from the first principles of the two axle car, we derive the rover’s mathematical model, which we then express through a flat-output representation. Using the resulting Brunovsky form, we provide both a position estimate (via the DKF) and a control module (a reference tracking variation). The model and its ancillary blocks are tested in simulation to validate the flat representation’s consistency and the performance of the navigation and control actions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50489,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Control","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 101334"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145645420","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Beniamino Di Lorenzo , Gian Carlo Maffettone , Mario di Bernardo
{"title":"A continuification-based control solution for large-scale shepherding","authors":"Beniamino Di Lorenzo , Gian Carlo Maffettone , Mario di Bernardo","doi":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101324","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101324","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper, we address the large-scale shepherding control problem using a density control strategy based on continuification. We consider a scenario in which a large group of follower agents (targets) must be confined within a designated goal region through indirect interactions with a controllable set of leader agents (herders). Our approach transforms the microscopic agent-based dynamics into a macroscopic continuum model. This formulation enables efficient, scalable control design for the herders’ behavior, with guarantees of global convergence. The approach is validated through comprehensive numerical simulations and novel mixed-reality experiments integrating physical and virtual agents, demonstrating both its effectiveness and practical applicability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50489,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Control","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 101324"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145645418","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Debojyoti Biswas , Eduardo D. Sontag , Noah J. Cowan
{"title":"An exact active sensing strategy for a class of bio-inspired systems","authors":"Debojyoti Biswas , Eduardo D. Sontag , Noah J. Cowan","doi":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101361","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejcon.2025.101361","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We consider a general class of translation-invariant systems with a specific category of output nonlinearities motivated by biological sensing. We show that no dynamic output feedback can stabilize this class of systems to an isolated equilibrium point. To overcome this fundamental limitation, we propose a simple control scheme that includes a low-amplitude periodic forcing function akin to so-called “active sensing” in biology, together with nonlinear output feedback. Our analysis shows that this approach leads to the emergence of an exponentially stable limit cycle. These findings offer a provably stable active sensing strategy and may thus help to rationalize the active sensing movements animals make when performing certain motor behaviors.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50489,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Control","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 101361"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145645539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}