J. E�er, N. Bach, C. Jestel, O. Urbann and S. Kerner, Guided Reinforcement Learning: A Review and Evaluation for Efficient and Effective Real-World Robotics [Survey], IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 67-85, June 2023 DOI: 10.1109/MRA.2022.3207664.
Recent successes aside, reinforcement learning (RL) still faces significant challenges in its application to the real-world robotics domain. Guiding the learning process with additional knowledge offers a potential solution, thus leveraging the strengths of data- and knowledge-driven approaches. However, this field of research encompasses several disciplines and hence would benefit from a structured overview.
In this article, we propose a concept of guided RL that provides a systematic approach toward accelerating the training process and improving performance for real-world robotics settings. We introduce a taxonomy that structures guided RL approaches and shows how different sources of knowledge can be integrated into the learning pipeline in a practical way. Based on this, we describe available approaches in this field and quantitatively evaluate their specific impact in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, and sim-to-real transfer within the robotics domain.