The problem
Conventional adaptive systems apply continuous active control at every cycle —
regardless of whether conditions actually require it. Energy is expended continuously
even when structure is stable and sustained actuation is unnecessary.
More critically: these systems cannot distinguish between structural work
required to maintain admissibility and propagation work required to advance
once admissibility is already established. The result is either
over-actuation, wasting resources on unnecessary corrections, or
under-regulation, allowing latent structural drift to accumulate silently
until it manifests as abrupt instability or irreversible failure.
Inertial Glide introduces a supervised inertial operating regime
in which an adaptive agent reduces continuous active control and propagates
primarily through continuation within its already-established admissible geometry.
This is not passive momentum. It is a conditionally permitted regime
with explicit structural criteria for entry, continuation, and termination.
The architecture introduces structural adhesion — a new
technical state variable representing the stability of coupling between the agent
and its admissible geometry. Adhesion regulates susceptibility to micro-slippage
and residual deformation during inertial propagation. When adhesion degrades,
or when accumulated drift approaches structural bounds, inertial glide
is terminated and active control re-engages.
A predictive constraint-of-constraint loop evaluates consequences
of candidate actions prior to execution — modulating admissibility conditions
themselves, not just control output magnitude. The system supervises its own
permission to remain in glide.
Core Architectural Principle
Separate structural work from propagation work.
An agent that has established admissible geometry
should coast within it — not continuously re-derive it.
What this is not
Not momentum or passive coasting
Not a low-gain control fallback
Not a confidence-based mode switch
Not an energy minimization heuristic
Not a sleep or idle mode
Not a meta-policy or planner
Figure 1 — Inertial Glide Supervisory Architecture
Adaptive Agent Core
Action selection · State evolution · Decision propagation
↓
Adhesion stable · Drift bounded
↓
Inertial Glide
Propagation within admissible geometry · Reduced actuation
↓
Drift exceeded · Adhesion degraded
↓
Active Regulation
Full control re-engaged · Structural revalidation
Transition criteria are structural, not performance-based.
The agent does not select its mode. The supervisory layer determines it.
Figure 2 — Predictive Constraint-of-Constraint Loop
1
Candidate Action
Generated by agent core
→
2
Predictive Evaluation
Consequence on admissibility & adhesion
→
3
Admissibility Decision
Permit glide / Terminate glide
→
4
Execution
Under governed regime
The loop operates at the level of admissibility conditions themselves —
not at the level of control output magnitude or action selection.
Figure 3 — Structural Adhesion and Drift Bounds
α
Structural Adhesion
Coupling stability between agent and admissible geometry. Must exceed threshold to permit glide.
ΔΦ
Accumulated Drift
Structural deformation accumulated during inertial propagation. Bounded by internal time horizon.
τ
Internal Time Horizon
Remaining structural viability. When exhausted, glide is prohibited and active control must re-engage.
Inertial glide is permitted only while α exceeds threshold AND ΔΦ remains within τ-bounded limits.
Both conditions must hold simultaneously.
Inertial Glide Control is a structural operating primitive within the PETRONUS
adaptive control architecture. It is composable with admissibility gating layers,
structural time regulation, and coherence-preserving control. The architecture
does not require modification of the agent’s internal reasoning or learning
algorithm — it operates as a supervisory structural layer governing
operational regime transitions.