arXiv subjects

Warren E. Dixon

Publications and source records attributed to Warren E. Dixon.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2025

System Identification and Control Using Lyapunov-Based Deep Neural Networks without Persistent Excitation: A Concurrent Learning Approach

Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) are increasingly used in control applications due to their powerful function approximation capabilities. However, many existing formulations focus primarily on tracking error convergence, often neglecting the challenge of identifying the system dynamics using the DNN. This paper presents the first result on simultaneous trajectory tracking and online system identification using a DNN-based controller, without requiring persistent excitation. Two new concurrent learning adaptation laws are constructed for the weights of all the layers of the DNN, achieving convergence of the DNN's parameter estimates to a neighborhood of their ideal values, provided the DNN's Jacobian satisfies a finite-time excitation condition. A Lyapunov-based stability analysis is conducted to ensure convergence of the tracking error, weight estimation errors, and observer errors to a neighborhood of the origin. Simulations performed on a range of systems and trajectories, with the same initial and operating conditions, demonstrated 40.5% to 73.6% improvement in function approximation performance compared to the baseline, while maintaining a similar tracking error and control effort. Simulations evaluating function approximation capabilities on data points outside of the trajectory resulted in 58.88% and 74.75% improvement in function approximation compared to the baseline.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2025

Lyapunov-Based Graph Neural Networks for Adaptive Control of Multi-Agent Systems

Graph neural networks (GNNs) have a message-passing framework in which vector messages are exchanged between graph nodes and updated using feedforward layers. The inclusion of distributed message-passing in the GNN architecture makes them ideally suited for distributed control and coordination tasks. Existing results develop GNN-based controllers to address a variety of multi-agent control problems while compensating for modeling uncertainties in the systems. However, these results use GNNs that are pre-trained offline. This paper provides the first result on GNNs with stability-driven online weight updates to address the multi-agent target tracking problem. Specifically, new Lyapunov-based distributed GNN and graph attention network (GAT)-based controllers are developed to adaptively estimate unknown target dynamics and address the second-order target tracking problem. A Lyapunov-based stability analysis is provided to guarantee exponential convergence of the target state estimates and agent states to a neighborhood of the target state. Numerical simulations show a 20.8% and 48.1% position tracking error performance improvement by the GNN and GAT architectures over a baseline DNN architecture, respectively.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2025

Lyapunov-Based Deep Residual Neural Network (ResNet) Adaptive Control

Deep Neural Network (DNN)-based controllers have emerged as a tool to compensate for unstructured uncertainties in nonlinear dynamical systems. A recent breakthrough in the adaptive control literature provides a Lyapunov-based approach to derive weight adaptation laws for each layer of a fully-connected feedforward DNN-based adaptive controller. However, deriving weight adaptation laws from a Lyapunov-based analysis remains an open problem for deep residual neural networks (ResNets). This paper provides the first result on Lyapunov-derived weight adaptation for a ResNet-based adaptive controller. A nonsmooth Lyapunov-based analysis is provided to guarantee asymptotic tracking error convergence. Comparative Monte Carlo simulations are provided to demonstrate the performance of the developed ResNet-based adaptive controller. The ResNet-based adaptive controller shows a 64% improvement in the tracking and function approximation performance, in comparison to a fully-connected DNN-based adaptive controller.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2025

Adaptive Deep Neural Network-Based Control Barrier Functions

Safety constraints of nonlinear control systems are commonly enforced through the use of control barrier functions (CBFs). Uncertainties in the dynamic model can disrupt forward invariance guarantees or cause the state to be restricted to an overly conservative subset of the safe set. In this paper, adaptive deep neural networks (DNNs) are combined with CBFs to produce a family of controllers that ensure safety while learning the system's dynamics in real-time without the requirement for pre-training. By basing the least squares adaptation law on a state derivative estimator-based identification error, the DNN parameter estimation error is shown to be uniformly ultimately bounded. The convergent bound on the parameter estimation error is then used to formulate CBF-constraints in an optimization-based controller to guarantee safety despite model uncertainty. Furthermore, the developed method is extended for use under intermittent loss of state-feedback. A switched systems analysis for CBFs is provided with a maximum dwell-time condition during which the feedback can be unavailable. Comparative simulation results demonstrate the ability of the developed method to ensure safety in an adaptive cruise control problem and when feedback is lost, unlike baseline methods. Results show improved performance compared to baseline methods and demonstrate the ability of the developed method to ensure safety in feedback-denied environments.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2025

Collaborative Spacecraft Servicing under Partial Feedback using Lyapunov-based Deep Neural Networks

Multi-agent systems are increasingly applied in space missions, including distributed space systems, resilient constellations, and autonomous rendezvous and docking operations. A critical emerging application is collaborative spacecraft servicing, which encompasses on-orbit maintenance, space debris removal, and swarm-based satellite repositioning. These missions involve servicing spacecraft interacting with malfunctioning or defunct spacecraft under challenging conditions, such as limited state information, measurement inaccuracies, and erratic target behaviors. Existing approaches often rely on assumptions of full state knowledge or single-integrator dynamics, which are impractical for real-world applications involving second-order spacecraft dynamics. This work addresses these challenges by developing a distributed state estimation and tracking framework that requires only relative position measurements and operates under partial state information. A novel $ρ$-filter is introduced to reconstruct unknown states using locally available information, and a Lyapunov-based deep neural network adaptive controller is developed that adaptively compensates for uncertainties stemming from unknown spacecraft dynamics. To ensure the collaborative spacecraft regulation problem is well-posed, a trackability condition is defined. A Lyapunov-based stability analysis is provided to ensure exponential convergence of errors in state estimation and spacecraft regulation to a neighborhood of the origin under the trackability condition. The developed method eliminates the need for expensive velocity sensors or extensive pre-training, offering a practical and robust solution for spacecraft servicing in complex, dynamic environments.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2024

Lyapunov-Based Deep Neural Networks for Adaptive Control of Stochastic Nonlinear Systems

Controlling nonlinear stochastic dynamical systems involves substantial challenges when the dynamics contain unknown and unstructured nonlinear state-dependent terms. For such complex systems, deep neural networks can serve as powerful black box approximators for the unknown drift and diffusion processes. Recent developments construct Lyapunov-based deep neural network (Lb-DNN) controllers to compensate for deterministic uncertainties using adaptive weight update laws derived from a Lyapunov-based analysis based on insights from the compositional structure of the DNN architecture. However, these Lb-DNN controllers do not account for non-deterministic uncertainties. This paper develops Lb-DNNs to adaptively compensate for both the drift and diffusion uncertainties of nonlinear stochastic dynamic systems. Through a Lyapunov-based stability analysis, a DNN-based approximation and corresponding DNN weight adaptation laws are constructed to eliminate the unknown state-dependent terms resulting from the nonlinear diffusion and drift processes. The tracking error is shown to be uniformly ultimately bounded in probability. Simulations are performed on a nonlinear stochastic dynamical system to show efficacy of the proposed method.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2023

Lyapunov-Based Dropout Deep Neural Network (Lb-DDNN) Controller

Deep neural network (DNN)-based adaptive controllers can be used to compensate for unstructured uncertainties in nonlinear dynamic systems. However, DNNs are also very susceptible to overfitting and co-adaptation. Dropout regularization is an approach where nodes are randomly dropped during training to alleviate issues such as overfitting and co-adaptation. In this paper, a dropout DNN-based adaptive controller is developed. The developed dropout technique allows the deactivation of weights that are stochastically selected for each individual layer within the DNN. Simultaneously, a Lyapunov-based real-time weight adaptation law is introduced to update the weights of all layers of the DNN for online unsupervised learning. A non-smooth Lyapunov-based stability analysis is performed to ensure asymptotic convergence of the tracking error. Simulation results of the developed dropout DNN-based adaptive controller indicate a 38.32% improvement in the tracking error, a 53.67% improvement in the function approximation error, and 50.44% lower control effort when compared to a baseline adaptive DNN-based controller without dropout regularization.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2022

Optimal Safety for Constrained Differential Inclusions using Nonsmooth Control Barrier Functions

For a broad class of nonlinear systems, we formulate the problem of guaranteeing safety with optimality under constraints. Specifically, we define controlled safety for differential inclusions with constraints on the states and the inputs. Through the use of nonsmooth analysis tools, we show that a continuous optimal control law can be selected from a set-valued constraint capturing the system constraints and conditions guaranteeing safety using control barrier functions. Our results guarantee optimality and safety via a continuous state-feedback law designed using nonsmooth control barrier functions. An example pertaining to obstacle avoidance with a target illustrates our results and the associated benefits of using nonsmooth control barrier functions.

math.OC↗

arXiv2022

Distributed State Estimation with Deep Neural Networks for Uncertain Nonlinear Systems under Event-Triggered Communication

Distributed state estimation is examined for a sensor network tasked with reconstructing a system's state through the use of a distributed and event-triggered observer. Each agent in the sensor network employs a deep neural network (DNN) to approximate the uncertain nonlinear dynamics of the system, which is trained using a multiple timescale approach. Specifically, the outer weights of each DNN are updated online using a Lyapunov-based gradient descent update law, while the inner weights and biases are trained offline using a supervised learning method and collected input-output data. The observer utilizes event-triggered communication to promote the efficient use of network resources. A nonsmooth Lyapunov analysis shows the distributed event-triggered observer has a uniformly ultimately bounded state reconstruction error. A simulation study is provided to validate the result and demonstrate the performance improvements afforded by the DNNs.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2021

Temporal-Logic-Based Intermittent, Optimal, and Safe Continuous-Time Learning for Trajectory Tracking

In this paper, we develop safe reinforcement-learning-based controllers for systems tasked with accomplishing complex missions that can be expressed as linear temporal logic specifications, similar to those required by search-and-rescue missions. We decompose the original mission into a sequence of tracking sub-problems under safety constraints. We impose the safety conditions by utilizing barrier functions to map the constrained optimal tracking problem in the physical space to an unconstrained one in the transformed space. Furthermore, we develop policies that intermittently update the control signal to solve the tracking sub-problems with reduced burden in the communication and computation resources. Subsequently, an actor-critic algorithm is utilized to solve the underlying Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations. Finally, we support our proposed framework with stability proofs and showcase its efficacy via simulation results.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2020

Adaptive Control of Time-Varying Parameter Systems with Asymptotic Tracking

A continuous adaptive control design is developed for nonlinear dynamical systems with linearly parameterizable uncertainty involving time-varying uncertain parameters. The key feature of this design is a robust integral of the sign of the error (RISE)-like term in the adaptation law which compensates for potentially destabilizing terms in the closed-loop error system arising from the time-varying nature of uncertain parameters. A Lyapunov-based stability analysis ensures asymptotic tracking, and boundedness of the closed-loop signals.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2019

On reduction of differential inclusions and Lyapunov stability

In this paper, locally Lipschitz, regular functions are utilized to identify and remove infeasible directions from set-valued maps that define differential inclusions. The resulting reduced set-valued map is point-wise smaller (in the sense of set containment) than the original set-valued map. The corresponding reduced differential inclusion, defined by the reduced set-valued map, is utilized to develop a generalized notion of a derivative for locally Lipschitz candidate Lyapunov functions in the direction(s) of a set-valued map. The developed generalized derivative yields less conservative statements of Lyapunov stability theorems, invariance theorems, invariance-like results, and Matrosov theorems for differential inclusions. Included illustrative examples demonstrate the utility of the developed theory.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2018

A Switched Systems Approach to Path Following with Intermittent State Feedback

Autonomous agents are often tasked with operating in an area where feedback is unavailable. Inspired by such applications, this paper develops a novel switched systems-based control method for uncertain nonlinear systems with temporary loss of state feedback. To compensate for intermittent feedback, an observer is used while state feedback is available to reduce the estimation error, and a predictor is utilized to propagate the estimates while state feedback is unavailable. Based on the resulting subsystems, maximum and minimum dwell time conditions are developed via a Lyapunov-based switched systems analysis to relax the constraint of maintaining constant feedback. Using the dwell time conditions, a switching trajectory is developed to enter and exit the feedback denied region in a manner that ensures the overall switched system remains stable. A scheme for designing a switching trajectory with a smooth transition function is provided. Simulation and experimental results are presented to demonstrate the performance of control design.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2017

Online Approximate Optimal Station Keeping of a Marine Craft in the Presence of a Current

Online approximation of the optimal station keeping strategy for a fully actuated six degrees-of-freedom marine craft subject to an irrotational ocean current is considered. An approximate solution to the optimal control problem is obtained using an adaptive dynamic programming technique. The hydrodynamic drift dynamics of the dynamic model are assumed to be unknown; therefore, a concurrent learning-based system identifier is developed to identify the unknown model parameters. The identified model is used to implement an adaptive model-based reinforcement learning technique to estimate the unknown value function. The developed policy guarantees uniformly ultimately bounded convergence of the vehicle to the desired station and uniformly ultimately bounded convergence of the approximated policies to the optimal polices without the requirement of persistence of excitation. The developed strategy is validated using an autonomous underwater vehicle, where the three degrees-of-freedom in the horizontal plane are regulated. The experiments are conducted in a second-magnitude spring located in central Florida.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2017

Invariance-like results for Nonautonomous Switched Systems

This paper generalizes the Lasalle-Yoshizawa Theorem to switched nonsmooth systems. Filippov and Krasovskii regularizations of a switched system are shown to be contained within the convex hull of the Filippov and Krasovskii regularizations of the subsystems, respectively. A candidate common Lyapunov function that has a negative semidefinite derivative along the trajectories of the subsystems is shown to be sufficient to establish LaSalle-Yoshizawa results for the switched system. Results for regular and non-regular candidate Lyapunov functions are presented using an appropriate generalization of the time derivative. The developed generalization is motivated by adaptive control of switched systems where the derivative of the candidate Lyapunov function is typically negative semidefinite.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2017

Model-based reinforcement learning in differential graphical games

This paper seeks to combine differential game theory with the actor-critic-identifier architecture to determine forward-in-time, approximate optimal controllers for formation tracking in multi-agent systems, where the agents have uncertain heterogeneous nonlinear dynamics. A continuous control strategy is proposed, using communication feedback from extended neighbors on a communication topology that has a spanning tree. A model-based reinforcement learning technique is developed to cooperatively control a group of agents to track a trajectory in a desired formation. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the developed technique.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2015

Integral Concurrent Learning: Adaptive Control with Parameter Convergence without PE or State Derivatives

Concurrent learning is a recently developed adaptive update scheme that can be used to guarantee parameter convergence without requiring persistent excitation. However, this technique requires knowledge of state derivatives, which are usually not directly sensed and therefore must be estimated. A novel integral concurrent learning method is developed in this paper that removes the need to estimate state derivatives while maintaining parameter convergence properties. A Monte Carlo simulation illustrates improved robustness to noise compared to the traditional derivative formulation.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2015

State Following (StaF) Kernel Functions for Function Approximation

A function approximation method is developed that aims to approximate a function in a small neighborhood of a state that travels within a compact set. The development is based on the theory of universal reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces over the $n$-dimensional Euclidean space. Several theorems are introduced that support the development of this State Following (StaF) method. In particular, it is shown that there is a bound on the number of kernel functions required for the maintenance of an accurate function approximation as a state moves through a compact set. Additionally, a weight update law, based on gradient descent, is introduced where arbitrarily close accuracy can be achieved provided the weight update law is iterated at a sufficient frequency, as detailed in Theorem 6.1. To illustrate the advantage, the impact of the StaF method is that for some applications the number of basis functions can be reduced. The StaF method is applied to an adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) application to demonstrate that stability is maintained with a reduced number of basis functions. Simulation results demonstrate the utility of the StaF methodology for the maintenance of accurate function approximation as well as solving an infinite horizon optimal regulation problem through ADP. The results of the simulation indicate that fewer basis functions are required to guarantee stability and approximate optimality than are required when a global approximation approach is used.

math.OC↗