Hardware-Aware SE(3) Control Barrier Functions for Counter-UAS Interceptors with Directed Energy Payloads

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Simulation Demo

The animation below compares two methods on the SE(3) CBF scenario: the unfiltered controller (red) and the proposed ADMM-CBF safety filter (blue), which maintains FoV pointing throughout the pursuit maneuver.

Key Contributions

A hardware-aware CBF safety filter on the SE(3) manifold that provides formal FoV pointing guarantees for directed-energy payloads under aggressive pursuit dynamics.
Formulation of phased-array electronic steering limits as a relative-degree-two safety constraint with analytically verified Lie derivatives.
An ADMM solver with constant-time core factorization enabling real-time onboard execution.
Validation in both a nonlinear SE(3) simulation and a PX4 SITL environment, demonstrating elimination of all FoV violations and recovery of antenna gain through beam tightening.

Counter-UAS | Δρ. Ευάγγελος Βλάχος

Hardware-Aware SE(3) Control Barrier Functions for Counter-UAS Interceptors with Directed Energy Payloads

Simulation Demo

Key Contributions