causality

Unified Causal-Origin Taxonomy for Distributional Shifts in Reinforcement Learning Systems

A research paper on arXiv presents a unified causal-origin taxonomy for distributional shifts in reinforcement learning (RL). Using a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP), the taxonomy categorizes shifts as internal (agent-driven) or external (environment-driven), and as explicit, implicit, or hybrid based on a shifted-time boundary. An evaluation framework measures performance degradation and recovery. This work provides a systematic foundation for analyzing robustness in RL systems under changing conditions.