Specification-aware Robustness Margins for Symbolic Controllers

Abstract

We address the problem of robust controller synthesis for a class of linear temporal logic (LTL) specifications over families of perturbed systems using symbolic control techniques. Given a dynamical system, a specification, and a symbolic controller synthesized using the fixed-point algorithm of the specification, the objective is to find the maximal perturbation we can apply to the system while the system continues to satisfy the same specification under the same controller. We first provide general results, by demonstrating that controllers synthesized based on the symbolic model can be refined back to a perturbed version of the concrete system while preserving their correctness. Focusing on four fundamental temporal logic specifications, namely safety, reachability, persistence, and recurrence, we introduce a general measure of the maximal robustness margin. Then, for each class of specifications, we derive a customized version of the measure and establish the corresponding theoretical guarantees. Importantly, the robustness margin depends explicitly on the sequence of sets generated during the fixed-point computation, allowing for specification-dependent and less conservative bounds compared to generic abstraction-based approaches. The theoretical developments are illustrated on two examples, demonstrating the practical applicability and effectiveness of the proposed approach.