arXiv subjects

Anuradha Annaswamy

Publications and source records attributed to Anuradha Annaswamy.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Closed-Loop Model-Based Control Barrier Functions with Application to Robust Flight Envelope Protection

Ensuring operation of aerospace systems within prescribed flight envelope limits is a fundamental requirement for modern flight control architectures. Flight envelope protection aims to prevent violations of aerodynamic and structural constraints, thereby mitigating risks such as stall and excessive load factors. Control barrier functions (CBFs) have emerged as a principled tool for enforcing safety by ensuring that the system state remains within a prescribed safe set. In most existing approaches, safety constraints are imposed at the control input-level based on an open-loop model of the system. While this open-loop model-based CBF formulation enables modular design, it may alter the closed-loop system dynamics, potentially compromising robustness guarantees and complicating integration into existing flight control architectures. This paper proposes a closed-loop model-based control barrier function (CLM-CBF) framework for flight envelope protection. The key idea is to enforce safety at the reference-level using an explicit model of the closed-loop system, thereby preserving the stability and robustness properties of the underlying controller. This formulation enables safety filtering without modifying the control law, facilitating modular integration and retrofitting into existing systems.

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arXiv2026

Understanding the role and value of battery storage in renewables-rich distribution grids under uncertainty and different market paradigms

Economy-wide electrification is driving steep load growth, while renewables and batteries are increasing pressure at the distribution grid edge often requiring costly upgrades. Local Electricity Markets (LEMs) can coordinate distributed energy resources (DERs) more efficiently than conventional designs. This paper extends the LEM framework by modeling photovoltaic (PV) inflow as an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) process to capture uncertainty and temporal correlation. Using rolling-horizon alternating optimal power flow on the IEEE 123-node feeder, we compare operator, customer, and system costs plus storage value under three market designs: flat tariff (FT), real-time pricing (RTP), and LEM. Results show that the LEM achieves the lowest customer and system costs, under uncertainty, while RTP performs worst. It outperforms the other markets across most storage and solar penetration levels. However, it may worsen customer outcomes at very low PV penetration, indicating that LEM adoption should accompany PV expansion and precede storage expansion. We examine two approaches to estimating battery storage value. Storage value depends on storage penetration, imbalance between storage and PV penetrations, location, and whether batteries are colocated with renewables and/or load. Poorly placed units can worsen congestion, whereas well-sited units benefit owners and the system. Both the marginal value of new storage and the stored energy value of existing capacity decline as PV penetration rises. However, they respond oppositely to battery penetration: marginal value falls because of diminishing returns as the fleet grows, while stored energy value rises as more batteries compete for the same local PV generation. These metrics capture different dimensions of storage value under a LEM: one measures the benefit of expanding the fleet, while the other measures the scarcity premium on energy already stored.

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arXiv2026

Flight Envelope Protection for a Hypersonic Glide Vehicle Using Adaptive Safety-Critical Control

This paper presents an adaptive safety-critical control framework for flight envelope protection (FEP) of hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) under model uncertainty. The proposed architecture treats input and state constraints through two complementary but distinct mechanisms. At the input end, an adaptive controller with a calibrated closed-loop reference model (CCRM) is designed to accommodate magnitude-limited control inputs and the effects of actuator saturation. Building on this input-constrained adaptive control architecture, flight envelope state constraints are enforced at the state end by an error-based safety filter (EBSF) based on control barrier functions (CBFs). The EBSF modifies the reference command and adapts the admissible safe set online using the measured mismatch between the reference model and the uncertain plant, thereby preserving forward invariance during transient adaptation. Simulation results for the DLR generic hypersonic glide vehicle 2 (GHGV-2) demonstrate stable, high-performance tracking under magnitude-limited control inputs while maintaining flight envelope constraints in the presence of model uncertainty.

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arXiv2026

Robust Safety Filters for Lipschitz-Bounded Adaptive Closed-Loop Systems with Structured Uncertainties

Adaptive control provides closed-loop stability and reference tracking for uncertain dynamical systems through online parameter adaptation. These properties alone, however, do not ensure safety in the sense of forward invariance of state constraints, particularly during transient phases of adaptation. Control barrier function (CBF)-based safety filters have been proposed to address this limitation, but existing approaches often rely on conservative constraint tightening or static safety margins within quadratic program formulations. This paper proposes a reference-based adaptive safety framework for systems with structured parametric uncertainty that explicitly accounts for transient plant-reference mismatch. Safety is enforced at the reference level using a barrier-function-based filter, while adaptive control drives the plant to track the safety-certified reference. By exploiting Lipschitz bounds on the closed-loop tracking error dynamics, a tracking-error-dependent robust CBF condition is derived and equivalently reformulated as a convex second-order cone program (SOCP). The proposed safety-filter formulation reduces conservatism relative to fixed-margin CBF formulations by rendering the resulting safety constraints progressively less restrictive as the plant-reference tracking error decreases, while preserving formal guarantees of forward invariance and closed-loop stability.

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arXiv2026

A Safe and Stable Controller for Fuel Cell Systems Using Adaptation and Reference Governors

This paper proposes a control architecture integrating adaptation with Lyapunov-based Reference Governors (LRGs) to ensure state constraint satisfaction for first-order systems with parametric uncertainties. Adaptation combined with LRGs guarantees stability, ensures good control performance, and remains safe even with parametric uncertainties. Simulations of the fuel cell temperature regulation problem demonstrate that the proposed control architecture successfully meets all control and safety objectives, whereas the standard adaptation fails to achieve the latter.

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arXiv2025

Safe and Stable Formation Control with Autonomous Multi-Agents Using Adaptive Control (Extended Version)

This manuscript considers the problem of ensuring stability and safety during formation control with distributed multi-agent systems in the presence of parametric uncertainty in the dynamics and limited communication. We propose an integrative approach that combines Adaptive Control, Control Barrier Functions (CBFs), and connected graphs. The main elements employed in the integrative approach are an adaptive control design that ensures stability, a CBF-based safety filter that generates safe commands based on a reference model dynamics, and a reference model that ensures formation control with multi-agent systems when no uncertainties are present. The overall control design is shown to lead to a closed-loop adaptive system that is stable, avoids unsafe regions, and converges to a desired formation of the multi-agents. Numerical examples are provided to support the theoretical derivations.

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arXiv2025

A game-theoretic, market-based approach to extract flexibility from distributed energy resources

We propose a market designed using game theory to optimally utilize the flexibility of distributed energy resources (DERs) like solar, batteries, electric vehicles, and flexible loads. Market agents perform multiperiod optimization to determine their feasible flexibility limits for power injections while satisfying all constraints of their DERs. This is followed by a Stackelberg game between the market operator and agents. The market operator as the leader aims to regulate the aggregate power injection around a desired value by leveraging the flexibility of their agents, and computes optimal prices for both electricity and flexibility services. The agents follow by optimally bidding their desired flexible power injections in response to these prices. We show the existence and uniqueness of a Nash equilibrium among all the agents and a Stackelberg equilibrium between all agents and the operator. In addition to deriving analytical closed-form solutions, we provide simulation results for a small example system to illustrate our approach.

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arXiv2024

Safe Autonomy for Uncrewed Surface Vehicles Using Adaptive Control and Reachability Analysis

Marine robots must maintain precise control and ensure safety during tasks like ocean monitoring, even when encountering unpredictable disturbances that affect performance. Designing algorithms for uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) requires accounting for these disturbances to control the vehicle and ensure it avoids obstacles. While adaptive control has addressed USV control challenges, real-world applications are limited, and certifying USV safety amidst unexpected disturbances remains difficult. To tackle control issues, we employ a model reference adaptive controller (MRAC) to stabilize the USV along a desired trajectory. For safety certification, we developed a reachability module with a moving horizon estimator (MHE) to estimate disturbances affecting the USV. This estimate is propagated through a forward reachable set calculation, predicting future states and enabling real-time safety certification. We tested our safe autonomy pipeline on a Clearpath Heron USV in the Charles River, near MIT. Our experiments demonstrated that the USV's MRAC controller and reachability module could adapt to disturbances like thruster failures and drag forces. The MRAC controller outperformed a PID baseline, showing a 45%-81% reduction in RMSE position error. Additionally, the reachability module provided real-time safety certification, ensuring the USV's safety. We further validated our pipeline's effectiveness in underway replenishment and canal scenarios, simulating relevant marine tasks.

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arXiv2024

Federated Learning Forecasting for Strengthening Grid Reliability and Enabling Markets for Resilience

We propose a comprehensive approach to increase the reliability and resilience of future power grids rich in distributed energy resources. Our distributed scheme combines federated learning-based attack detection with a local electricity market-based attack mitigation method. We validate the scheme by applying it to a real-world distribution grid rich in solar PV. Simulation results demonstrate that the approach is feasible and can successfully mitigate the grid impacts of cyber-physical attacks.

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arXiv2024

Enhancing power grid resilience to cyber-physical attacks using distributed retail electricity markets

We propose using a hierarchical retail market structure to alert and dispatch resources to mitigate cyber-physical attacks on a distribution grid. We simulate attacks where a number of generation nodes in a distribution grid are attacked. We show that the market is able to successfully meet the shortfall between demand and supply by utilizing the flexibility of remaining resources while minimizing any extra power that needs to be imported from the main transmission grid. This includes utilizing upward flexibility or reserves of remaining online generators and some curtailment or shifting of flexible loads, which results in higher costs. Using price signals and market-based coordination, the grid operator can achieve its objectives without direct control over distributed energy resources and is able to accurately compensate prosumers for the grid support they provide.

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arXiv2024

Physics-Informed Graph Neural Network for Dynamic Reconfiguration of Power Systems

To maintain a reliable grid we need fast decision-making algorithms for complex problems like Dynamic Reconfiguration (DyR). DyR optimizes distribution grid switch settings in real-time to minimize grid losses and dispatches resources to supply loads with available generation. DyR is a mixed-integer problem and can be computationally intractable to solve for large grids and at fast timescales. We propose GraPhyR, a Physics-Informed Graph Neural Network (GNNs) framework tailored for DyR. We incorporate essential operational and connectivity constraints directly within the GNN framework and train it end-to-end. Our results show that GraPhyR is able to learn to optimize the DyR task.

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arXiv2023

Local retail electricity markets for distribution grid services

We propose a hierarchical local electricity market (LEM) at the primary and secondary feeder levels in a distribution grid, to optimally coordinate and schedule distributed energy resources (DER) and provide valuable grid services like voltage control. At the primary level, we use a current injection-based model that is valid for both radial and meshed, balanced and unbalanced, multi-phase systems. The primary and secondary markets leverage the flexibility offered by DERs to optimize grid operation and maximize social welfare. Numerical simulations on an IEEE-123 bus modified to include DERs, show that the LEM successfully achieves voltage control and reduces overall network costs, while also allowing us to decompose the price and value associated with different grid services so as to accurately compensate DERs.

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arXiv2022

A Hierarchical Local Electricity Market for a DER-rich Grid Edge

With increasing penetration of DERs in the distribution system, it is critical to design market structures that enable smooth integration of DERs. A hierarchical local electricity market (LEM) structure is proposed in this paper with a secondary market (SM) at the lower level representing secondary feeders and a primary market (PM) at the upper level, representing primary feeders, in order to effectively use DERs to increase grid efficiency and resilience. The lower level SM enforces budget, power balance and flexibility constraints and accounts for costs related to consumers, such as their disutility, flexibility limits, and commitment reliability, while the upper level PM enforces power physics constraints such as power balance and capacity limits, and also minimizes line losses. The hierarchical LEM is extensively evaluated using a modified IEEE-123 bus with high DER penetration, with each primary feeder consisting of at least three secondary feeders. Data from a GridLAB-D model is used to emulate realistic power injections and load profiles over the course of 24 hours. The performance of the LEM is illustrated by delineating the family of power-injection profiles across the primary and secondary feeders as well as corresponding local electricity tariffs that vary across the distribution grid. Together, it represents an overall framework for a Distribution System Operator (DSO) who can provide the oversight for the entire LEM.

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arXiv2021

Online Policies for Real-Time Control Using MRAC-RL

In this paper, we propose the Model Reference Adaptive Control & Reinforcement Learning (MRAC-RL) approach to developing online policies for systems in which modeling errors occur in real-time. Although reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms have been successfully used to develop control policies for dynamical systems, discrepancies between simulated dynamics and the true target dynamics can cause trained policies to fail to generalize and adapt appropriately when deployed in the real-world. The MRAC-RL framework generates online policies by utilizing an inner-loop adaptive controller together with a simulation-trained outer-loop RL policy. This structure allows MRAC-RL to adapt and operate effectively in a target environment, even when parametric uncertainties exists. We propose a set of novel MRAC algorithms, apply them to a class of nonlinear systems, derive the associated control laws, provide stability guarantees for the resulting closed-loop system, and show that the adaptive tracking objective is achieved. Using a simulation study of an automated quadrotor landing task, we demonstrate that the MRAC-RL approach improves upon state-of-the-art RL algorithms and techniques through the generation of online policies.

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arXiv2020

MRAC-RL: A Framework for On-Line Policy Adaptation Under Parametric Model Uncertainty

Reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms have been successfully used to develop control policies for dynamical systems. For many such systems, these policies are trained in a simulated environment. Due to discrepancies between the simulated model and the true system dynamics, RL trained policies often fail to generalize and adapt appropriately when deployed in the real-world environment. Current research in bridging this sim-to-real gap has largely focused on improvements in simulation design and on the development of improved and specialized RL algorithms for robust control policy generation. In this paper we apply principles from adaptive control and system identification to develop the model-reference adaptive control & reinforcement learning (MRAC-RL) framework. We propose a set of novel MRAC algorithms applicable to a broad range of linear and nonlinear systems, and derive the associated control laws. The MRAC-RL framework utilizes an inner-loop adaptive controller that allows a simulation-trained outer-loop policy to adapt and operate effectively in a test environment, even when parametric model uncertainty exists. We demonstrate that the MRAC-RL approach improves upon state-of-the-art RL algorithms in developing control policies that can be applied to systems with modeling errors.

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arXiv2012

Adaptive Switching Controllers for Tracking using Persistent Excitation

The focus of this paper is on the co-design of control and communication protocol for the control of multiple applications with unknown parameters using a distributed embedded system. The co-design consists of an adaptive switching controller and a hybrid communication architecture that switches between a time-triggered and event-triggered protocol. It is shown that the overall co-design leads to an overall switching adaptive system that has bounded solutions and ensures tracking in the presence of a class of disturbances. In order to achieve the goal of tracking persistent excitation techniques are used.

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arXiv2012

Perturbation Analysis of the Wholesale Energy Market Equilibrium in the Presence of Renewables

One of the main challenges in the emerging smart grid is the integration of renewable energy resources (RER). The latter introduces both intermittency and uncertainty into the grid, both of which can affect the underlying energy market. An interesting concept that is being explored for mitigating the integration cost of RERs is Demand Response. Implemented as a time-varying electricity price in real-time, Demand Response has a direct impact on the underlying energy market as well. Beginning with an overall model of the major market participants together with the constraints of transmission and generation, we analyze the energy market in this paper and derive conditions for global maximum using standard KKT criteria. The effect of uncertainties in the RER on the market equilibrium is then quantified, with and without real-time pricing. Perturbation analysis methods are used to compare the equilibria in the nominal and perturbed markets. These markets are also analyzed using a game-theoretic point of view. Sufficient conditions are derived for the existence of a unique Pure Nash Equilibrium in the nominal market. The perturbed market is analyzed using the concept of closeness of two strategic games and the equilibria of close games. This analysis is used to quantify the effect of uncertainty of RERs and its possible mitigation using Demand Response. Finally numerical studies are reported using an IEEE 30-bus to validate the theoretical results.

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