Actuator degradation

Restrict or alter available actions

Injection definition

Actuator degradation restricts, attenuates, or distorts the physical execution of action commands issued by targeted agents. Upon fault onset (randomized between steps 40–60), the environment scales down motor output, caps action magnitudes, or injects mechanical actuation delays (e.g. reduced conveyor speed or restricted press force). While the agent believes it is issuing full control commands, physical system execution is diminished, testing the system's ability to compensate for hardware wear and physical bottlenecks.

Experimental trajectory graphs

Permanent fault mode

Permanent actuator degradation fault trajectory graph — Permanent actuator degradation (stuck mode) fault trajectory showing the active fault window (onset at step 40, persisting through step 200). Actuators freeze causing container level overflow, 0 presses executed, and severe cumulative reward degradation (-77.16) without recovery intervention.

Transient fault mode (40–60 timesteps)

Transient actuator degradation fault trajectory graph (40-60 timesteps) — Transient actuator degradation (stuck mode) fault trajectory showing the bounded fault window active between steps 40–60. Displays press recovery after step 60, 16783 total material processed, and final cumulative reward of 78.17 without recovery intervention.

Duration modes

Permanent: the fault persists for the relevant evaluation.
Transient: the fault is introduced for a bounded interval.

Recovery mechanisms

Rule-based reconfiguration
Fault-tolerant-trained MARL
Hierarchical supervisor-agent
LLM-agent replanning