Objective
The reliability of autonomous control systems depends on their robustness, i.e. their ability to meet their objectives under uncertainty. Emerging applications in autonomy are increasingly time-critical: failing to meet temporal requirements can severely compromise safety and performance, as in multi-robot disaster response, fleets of autonomous taxis, and automated airport ground control. Yet today’s technology still struggles with unpredictable delays and coordination failures, limiting their reliability in real-world settings.
Existing research has focused on spatial robustness, ensuring that spatial objectives - such as collision avoidance of a robot - are met despite modeling errors and disturbances. However, time-critical systems also require spatiotemporal robustness: the ability to meet time-critical objectives - such as deadlines, sequencing, and periodic tasks - under uncertainty. A major challenge arises from variations in computation and actuation times, and particularly from complex timing uncertainties caused by human interaction, unpredictable sensing failures, and compute-intensive perception. Equally limiting is the lack of scalable design tools, calling for a fundamental rethinking of current methods. Our goal is to establish the theoretical and algorithmic foundations of time-critical systems via spatiotemporal robustness to enable their reliable deployment in the real world.
Therefore, the objectives of this proposal will be to: (1) develop interpretable notions of spatiotemporal robustness along with efficient tools for its computation; (2) design spatiotemporally robust task and motion planning algorithms; (3) propose spatiotemporal tracking controllers and runtime verification techniques; (4) define notions of graph spatiotemporal robustness for distributed control of multi-agent systems; and (5) perform experimental validation on multi-robot wildfire monitoring, self-driving taxis, and automated airport ground control systems.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering control systems
- engineering and technology environmental engineering ecosystem-based management climate change adaptation
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2026-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
8092 Zuerich
Switzerland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.