Machines that know they are aging: a framework for hardware-aware autonomous intelligence
This work addresses the critical challenge that autonomous systems often fail in practice due to hardware aging—such as battery degradation and sensor drift—which causes their actual capabilities to deviate from AI assumptions. To bridge this gap, the paper introduces the Aging-Aware Autonomous Intelligence (AAAI) framework, which uniquely integrates physics-of-failure–based hardware health estimation directly into the reasoning, planning, and execution loop. Without requiring additional hardware, AAAI enables self-awareness, adaptive inference, and survival-oriented decision-making. By dynamically adjusting task priorities and resource allocation, the approach supports graceful degradation and mission continuity in unreachable or safety-critical environments—such as deep-space exploration and implantable medical devices—thereby significantly enhancing system resilience and operational lifespan.