The Reality Gap in Robotics

Simulation is a cornerstone of modern robotics, offering a safe, scalable, and efficient environment for training and testing. Develop and validate complex behaviors without risking real hardware. Compare algorithms in reproducible, controlled scenarios. Create vast datasets for learning at a fraction of the real-world cost. However, the effectiveness of simulation is often limited by the "reality gap"—the discrepancies between simulated and real-world environments. Simulations are only approximations of the real world. The "reality gap" is the collection of discrepancies—from physics to perception—that can cause a policy to fail when transferred from simulation to a real robot. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of the sim-to-real landscape. We dissect the problem, identify the sources of the reality gap, and provide metrics and solutions to understand and alleviate these problems in practice. Our goal is to boost the understanding of the problem by providing a guide for re

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• Ali Ahmad