Viscosity CBFs: Bridging the Control Barrier Function and Hamilton-Jacobi Reachability Frameworks in Safe Control Theory

Abstract: Control barrier functions (CBFs) and Hamilton-Jacobi reachability (HJR) are central frameworks in safe control. Traditionally, these frameworks have been viewed as distinct, with the former focusing on optimally safe controller design and the latter providing sufficient conditions for safety. A previous work introduced the notion of a control barrier value function (CB-VF), which is defined similarly to the other value functions studied in HJR but has certain CBF-like properties. In this work, we proceed the other direction by generalizing CBFs to non-differentiable ``viscosity'' CBFs. We show the deep connection between viscosity CBFs and CB-VFs, bridging the CBF and HJR frameworks. Through this bridge, we characterize the viscosity CBFs as precisely those functions which provide CBF-like safety guarantees (control invariance and smooth approach to the boundary). We then further show nice theoretical properties of viscosity CBFs, including their desirable closure under maximum and limit operations. In the process, we also extend CB-VFs to non-exponential anti-discounting and update the corresponding theory for CB-VFs along these lines.