Anil Alan

Delft Center for Systems and Control

TU Delft, Building 34

Mekelweg 2, 2628 CD Delft

Netherlands

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Delft Center for Systems and Control (DCSC), TU Delft, working under Prof. Bart De Schutter on the ERC Advanced Grant project CLariNet.

My research develops provably safe controllers for autonomous systems operating under real-world uncertainties. I specialize in Control Barrier Functions (CBFs). A defining aspect of my work is experimental validation: theoretical safety guarantees are tested in closed environment, integration with energy-optimal controllers are validated on highway using a connected and automated heavy-duty truck in collaboration with Navistar, Inc.

I received my Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2024, advised by Prof. Gábor Orosz, and was recognized with the Prof. Pierre T. Kabamba Award (2025), a Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship (2023), and the Best Student Paper Award by ASME (Dynamic Systems and Controls Division) at ACC 2023. I hold an M.Sc. from Bilkent University (2017) and a B.Sc. from the Middle East Technical University (2013).

Selected Projects

CLariNet

Control Paradigm for Large-Scale Hybrid Systems · ERC Advanced Grant (2024–2026)

Safety-Critical Control for Automated Trucks

Robust safety-critical controllers experimentally validated on highway-driving heavy-duty trucks · Navistar, Inc. (2021–2022)

Integrating Safe and Energy-Optimal Control for Trucks

Merging safety-critical control with energy optimization, demonstrated on highway · Navistar, Inc. (2019–2022)

news

Jul 01, 2026	Presenting at ECC 2026 in Reykjavik and co-chairing the Control Barrier Functions session. Paper: Uniform Feasibility for Smoothed Backup Control Barrier Functions.
Mar 01, 2026	Gave a department seminar at DCSC, TU Delft on robust and predictive control barrier functions. Watch on YouTube.
Feb 01, 2026	Invited talk at the Online Seminar on Input-to-State Stability. Watch on Youtube.
Dec 01, 2025	Invited talk at Young Researchers in Mechanical Engineering, Bilkent University.
Jun 01, 2025	Awarded the Prof. Pierre T. Kabamba Award by the University of Michigan Department of Mechanical Engineering.

selected publications

IEEE OJCS

Generalizing robust control barrier functions from a controller design perspective

Anil Alan, Tamás G. Molnár, Aaron D. Ames, and 1 more author

IEEE Open Journal of Control Systems, 2025

DOI Bib

@article{alan2025generalizing,
  title = {Generalizing robust control barrier functions from a controller design perspective},
  author = {Alan, Anil and Moln{\'a}r, Tam{\'a}s G. and Ames, Aaron D. and Orosz, G{\'a}bor},
  journal = {IEEE Open Journal of Control Systems},
  volume = {4},
  pages = {54--69},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1109/OJCSYS.2024.3499377}
}

IEEE TIV

Integrating safety with performance in connected automated truck control: experimental validation

Anil Alan, Chaozhe R. He, Tamás G. Molnár, and 3 more authors

IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles, 2023

DOI Bib

@article{alan2023integrating,
  title = {Integrating safety with performance in connected automated truck control: experimental validation},
  author = {Alan, Anil and He, Chaozhe R. and Moln{\'a}r, Tam{\'a}s G. and Mathew, Johaan C. and Bell, Aaron H. and Orosz, G{\'a}bor},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles},
  volume = {9},
  number = {1},
  pages = {3075--3088},
  year = {2023},
  doi = {10.1109/TIV.2023.3340807}
}

IEEE TCST

Control barrier functions and input-to-state safety with application to automated vehicles

Anil Alan, Andrew J. Taylor, Chaozhe R. He, and 2 more authors

IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, 2023

DOI Bib

@article{alan2023cbf_iss,
  title = {Control barrier functions and input-to-state safety with application to automated vehicles},
  author = {Alan, Anil and Taylor, Andrew J. and He, Chaozhe R. and Ames, Aaron D. and Orosz, G{\'a}bor},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology},
  volume = {31},
  number = {6},
  pages = {2744--2759},
  year = {2023},
  doi = {10.1109/TCST.2023.3286090}
}

IEEE L-CSS

Disturbance observers for robust safety-critical control with control barrier functions

Anil Alan, Tamás G. Molnár, Ersin Daş, and 2 more authors

IEEE Control Systems Letters, 2023

Best Student Paper Award DOI Bib

Best Student Paper Award, ACC 2023

@article{alan2023disturbance,
  title = {Disturbance observers for robust safety-critical control with control barrier functions},
  author = {Alan, Anil and Moln{\'a}r, Tam{\'a}s G. and Da{\c{s}}, Ersin and Ames, Aaron D. and Orosz, G{\'a}bor},
  journal = {IEEE Control Systems Letters},
  volume = {7},
  pages = {1123--1128},
  year = {2023},
  doi = {10.1109/LCSYS.2022.3228927}
}

IEEE L-CSS

Safe controller synthesis with tunable input-to-state safe control barrier functions

Anil Alan, Andrew J. Taylor, Chaozhe R. He, and 2 more authors

IEEE Control Systems Letters, 2022

DOI Bib

@article{alan2022safe,
  title = {Safe controller synthesis with tunable input-to-state safe control barrier functions},
  author = {Alan, Anil and Taylor, Andrew J. and He, Chaozhe R. and Orosz, G{\'a}bor and Ames, Aaron D.},
  journal = {IEEE Control Systems Letters},
  volume = {6},
  pages = {908--913},
  year = {2022},
  doi = {10.1109/LCSYS.2021.3086854}
}