This paper reviews Artificial Immune Systems (AIS) that can be implemented to compensate for actuators that are in a faulted state or operating abnormally. Eventually, all actuators will fail or wear out, and these actuator faults must be managed if a system is to operate safely. The AIS are adaptive algorithms which are inherently well-suited to these situations by treating these faults as infections that must be combated. However, the computational intensity of these algorithms has caused them to have limited success in real-time situations. With the advent of distributed and cloud-based computing these algorithms have begun to be feasible for diagnosing faulted actuators and then generating compensating controllers in near-real-time. To encourage the application of AIS to these situations, this work presents research for the fundamental operating principles of AIS, their applications, and a brief case-study on their applicability to fault compensation by considering an overactuated rover with four independent drive wheels and independent front and rear steering.