Scaling-Based Reciprocal Control Barrier Functions for Nonholonomic Mobile Robots

Abstract

This paper studies the construction of control barrier functions (CBFs) for force-controlled nonholonomic mobile robots subject to relative-degree-two safety constraints arising from position-level obstacle avoidance. A scaling-based reciprocal barrier construction is proposed, in which a positive motion-dependent scaling factor is placed in the numerator of a reciprocal barrier associated with the original physical safety function. The resulting barrier is defined exactly on the interior of the physical safe set and becomes singular on its boundary, thereby preserving the certified interior domain of the original safety constraint while recovering first-order control authority. For a force-controlled nonholonomic robot model, sufficient conditions are derived under which the proposed construction defines a reciprocal CBF, and the interior of the physical safe set is forward invariant under controllers satisfying the induced reciprocal-CBF condition. A scalar strict-feedback system is further used to provide a structural interpretation of the underlying higher-relative-degree cascade under explicit structural assumptions. Numerical simulations demonstrate the induced safe-set geometry and its integration with an optimization-based control framework for obstacle avoidance.