# Beyond Task Success: Stage-Wise Reliability of World Model Planning under Sensing Degradation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.07126 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.07126/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Latent predictive world models, one of 11 directions in World models.
- Builds on 10 of its 11 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Sep 2026.

## Placed in

- World models / [Latent predictive world models](https://mlsanity.com/wm/latent-predictive-world-models/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 10 of 10)

- [DINO-WM: World Models on Pre-trained Visual Features enable Zero-shot Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.04983/) (2024)
- [WorldVLA: Towards Autoregressive Action World Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.21539/) (2025)
- [LeWorldModel: Stable End-to-End Joint-Embedding Predictive Architecture from Pixels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.19312/) (2026)
- [Reinforcement Learning with Random Delays](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02966/) (2020)
- [Dual-Stream Diffusion for World-Model Augmented Vision-Language-Action Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.27607/) (2025)
- [stable-worldmodel: A Platform for Reproducible World Modeling Research and Evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.21800/) (2026)
- [Learning Invariant Visual Representations for Planning with Joint-Embedding Predictive World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.18639/) (2026)
- [A Control Theory of Predictability in Latent World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.10362/) (2026)
- [Diagnosing JEPA World Models with Action-Conditioned Predictive Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.12939/) (2026)
- [VIScore: Diagnosing Planning-Relevant Quality in Latent World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.11174/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In world model planning, sensing inputs pass through an encoder and predictor before affecting planner decisions, so final task success alone cannot reveal where sensing disturbances attenuate or persist in the pipeline. We apply 10 visual and temporal sensing degradations to a world model planner and track their effects across representation, future prediction, planner preference, and physical outcome using paired evaluation on the same 50 tasks. The relative impact of degradations was not preserved across stages: large representation shifts could attenuate downstream, while smaller initial shifts could persist to the outcome, and internal-response ordering did not directly match physical-outcome ordering. Temporal degradations also showed distinct patterns: even with similar overall changes in observation history, responses differed substantially with the location of corrupted information and the planner's actual exposure. This non-uniform stage-wise response was also observed in secondary evaluations with another manipulation task and a different world model. Stage-wise diagnosis can therefore identify where sensing disturbances attenuate or persist and help prioritize subsequent model verification and sensing mitigation.