Context-aware LLM-based Safe Control Against Latent Risks

Abstract: Autonomous control systems face significant challenges in performing complex tasks in the presence of latent risks. To address this, we propose an integrated framework that combines LLMs, numerical optimization, and optimization-based control to facilitate efficient subtask learning while ensuring safety against latent risks. The framework decomposes complex tasks into a sequence of context-aware subtasks that account for latent risks. These subtasks and their parameters are then refined through a multi-time-scale process: high-layer multi-turn in-context learning, mid-layer LLM Chain-of-Thought reasoning and numerical optimization, and low-layer model predictive control. The framework iteratively improves decisions by leveraging qualitative feedback and optimized trajectory data from lower-layer optimization processes and a physics simulator. We validate the proposed framework through simulated case studies involving robot arm and autonomous vehicle scenarios. The experiments demonstrate that the proposed framework can mediate actions based on the context and latent risks and learn complex behaviors efficiently.