Perspectives on Sim2Real Transfer for Robotics: A Summary of the R:SS 2020 Workshop

TL;DR

This paper summarizes a 2020 workshop on Sim2Real transfer in robotics, discussing debates, perspectives, and future directions for transferring skills from simulation to real-world robotics applications.

Contribution

It compiles expert debates, discussions, and abstracts from the workshop, providing a comprehensive overview of current challenges and future research directions in Sim2Real transfer.

Findings

Diverse viewpoints on the viability of Sim2Real transfer.

Identification of open problems and challenges.

Guidelines for practitioners and researchers.

Abstract

This report presents the debates, posters, and discussions of the Sim2Real workshop held in conjunction with the 2020 edition of the "Robotics: Science and System" conference. Twelve leaders of the field took competing debate positions on the definition, viability, and importance of transferring skills from simulation to the real world in the context of robotics problems. The debaters also joined a large panel discussion, answering audience questions and outlining the future of Sim2Real in robotics. Furthermore, we invited extended abstracts to this workshop which are summarized in this report. Based on the workshop, this report concludes with directions for practitioners exploiting this technology and for researchers further exploring open problems in this area.