Collision Cone Control Barrier Functions: Experimental Validation on UGVs for Kinematic Obstacle Avoidance

This paper introduces an experimental platform designed for the validation and demonstration of a novel class of Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) tailored for Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) to proactively prevent collisions with kinematic obstacles by integrating the concept of collision cones. While existing CBF formulations excel with static obstacles, extensions to torque/acceleration-controlled unicycle and bicycle models have seen limited success. Conventional CBF applications in such nonholonomic UGV models have demonstrated control conservatism, particularly in scenarios where steering/thrust control was deemed infeasible. Drawing inspiration from collision cones in path planning, we present a pioneering C3BF formulation ensuring theoretical safety guarantees for such models. The core premise revolves around aligning the obstacle's velocity away from the vehicle, establishing a constraint to perpetually avoid vectors directed towards it. This control methodology is rigorously validated through simulations and experimental verification on the Copernicus mobile robot (Unicycle Model) and FOCAS-Car (Bicycle Model).