Sim-to-Real Transfer

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Overview

The field studies how to make models and control policies trained in simulation work reliably when they encounter real sensors, physics, objects, and environments. Common approaches include domain randomization, system identification and simulator calibration, real-to-sim-to-real data loops, and shared representations that align simulated and real visual, tactile, or proprioceptive inputs. Researchers apply these methods to tasks such as robotic manipulation, locomotion, navigation, and vehicle control, often testing zero-shot deployment alongside adaptation with limited real-world data. A central tension is that more realistic simulation can improve transfer but is costly to build, while broad randomization may not capture important mismatches; high simulation scores therefore do not always predict real-world performance.

Latest papers

CardsList

319 papers70 papers in the last four weeks, up 84% on the four weeks before. 0.4% of all new papers.

  1. TransCurriculum: Multi-Dimensional Curriculum Learning for Fast & Stable Locomotion

    Mar 14, 2026Prakhar Mishra, Amir Hossain Raj, Xuesu Xiao +1RL for Legged LocomotionCurriculum Learning

    University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. · George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.

  2. Robust Sim-to-Real Cloth Untangling through Reduced-Resolution Observations via Adaptive Force-Difference Quantization

    Mar 14, 2026Yoshihisa Tsurumine, Yuki Kadokawa, Kohei Hayashi +2Sim-to-Real TransferDeformable Object Manipulation

    All the authors are with the Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan. · Christian Diehm is with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.

  3. CALF: Communication-Aware Learning Framework for Distributed Reinforcement Learning

    Mar 13, 2026Carlos Purves, Pietro Lio'Distributed RLRobust RL

    University of Cambridge

  4. HandelBot: Real-World Piano Playing via Fast Adaptation of Dexterous Robot Policies

    Mar 12, 2026Amber Xie, Haozhi Qi, Dorsa SadighRobotic ManipulationBimanual Robotic Manipulation

    Stanford University · Amazon FAR (Frontier AI & Robotics)

  5. Sim-to-reality adaptation for Deep Reinforcement Learning applied to an underwater docking application

    Mar 12, 2026Alaaeddine Chaarani, Narcis Palomeras, Pere RidaoUnderwater RoboticsRL Control

    Authors with the Faculty of Computer Science, Computer Vision and Robotics Research Group (vicorob) Universitat de Girona, 17003 Girona, Spain.

  6. Mind the Sim2Real Gap in User Simulation for Agentic Tasks

    Mar 11, 2026Xuhui Zhou, Weiwei Sun, Qianou Ma +8User SimulationSim-to-Real Transfer

    Carnegie Mellon University, Language Technologies Institute

  7. Splat2Real: Novel-view Scaling for Physical AI with 3D Gaussian Splatting

    Mar 11, 2026Hansol Lim, Jongseong Brad ChoiActive View SelectionSim-to-Real Transfer

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, State University of New York, Korea, 21985, Republic of Korea. · Department of Mechanical Engineering, State University of New York, Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.

  8. Impact of Markov Decision Process Design on Sim-to-Real Reinforcement Learning

    Mar 10, 2026Tatjana Krau, Jorge Mandlmaier, Tobias Damm +1Sim-to-Real TransferMarkov Decision Processes

    Institute of Production and Informatics, 87527 Sonthofen, Germany · Department of Mathematics, RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany

  9. Using Vision Language Foundation Models to Generate Plant Simulation Configurations via In-Context Learning

    Mar 9, 2026Heesup Yun, Isaac Kazuo Uyehara, Earl Ranario +4VLM EvaluationAgricultural Image Analysis

    University of California, Davis

  10. Seed2Scale: A Self-Evolving Data Engine with Parallel Worlds Expansion for Scalable Robot Learning

    Mar 9, 2026Cong Tai, Zhaoyu Zheng, Haixu Long +12Synthetic Data Generation for RoboticsData-Efficient Robot Learning

    ZTE Corporation, China

  11. Exoskeleton Control through Learning to Reduce Biological Joint Moments in Simulations

    Mar 8, 2026Zihang You, Xianlian ZhouSim-to-Real TransferRL for Robotics

    Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102, USA

  12. A Multi-Layer Sim-to-Real Framework for Gaze-Driven Assistive Neck Exoskeletons

    Mar 6, 2026Colin Rubow, Eric Brewer, Ian Bales +2Assistive RoboticsRobotic Control

    Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah, UT 84112, USA. · Robotics Center, University of Utah, UT 84112, USA. · Kahlert School of Computing, University of Utah, UT 84112, USA.

  13. How to Model Your Crazyflie Brushless

    Mar 6, 2026Alexander Gräfe, Christoph Scherer, Wolfgang Hönig +1Quadrotor ControlRobotics Simulation

    Institute for Data Science in Mechanical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Germany · Intelligent Multi-Robot Coordination Lab, TU Berlin, Germany

  14. Task-Level Decisions to Gait Level Control: A Hierarchical Policy Approach for Quadruped Navigation

    Mar 6, 2026Sijia Li, Haoyu Wang, Shenghai Yuan +2Quadruped Robot NavigationRobot Navigation

  15. PTLD: Sim-to-real Privileged Tactile Latent Distillation for Dexterous Manipulation

    Mar 4, 2026Rosy Chen, Mustafa Mukadam, Michael Kaess +4Dexterous ManipulationSim-to-Real Transfer

    Carnegie Mellon University · University of Washington · FAIR at Meta +1

  16. Tendon Force Modeling for Sim2Real Transfer of Reinforcement Learning Policies for Tendon-Driven Robots

    Mar 4, 2026Valentin Yuryev, Josie HughesSim-to-Real TransferTendon-Driven Actuation

    These authors are with with CREATE Lab, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.

  17. Learning Hip Exoskeleton Control Policy via Predictive Neuromusculoskeletal Simulation

    Mar 4, 2026Ilseung Park, Changseob Song, Inseung KangHip Exoskeleton ControlRobotic Control

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213 USA.

  18. Sim2Sea: Sim-to-Real Policy Transfer for Maritime Vessel Navigation in Congested Waters

    Mar 4, 2026Xinyu Cui, Xuanfa Jin, Xue Yan +7Sim-to-Real TransferRobot Navigation

    Institute of Automation, CAS School of Artificial Intelligence, UCAS Beijing, China · Institute of Automation, CAS Beijing, China · Zhongguancun Academy Beijing, China +1

  19. D-REX: Differentiable Real-to-Sim-to-Real Engine for Learning Dexterous Grasping

    Mar 1, 2026Haozhe Lou, Mingtong Zhang, Haoran Geng +9Robotic GraspingRobotics Simulation

    Physical Superintelligence (PSI) Lab, University of Southern California · Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California · Department of EECS, University of California, Berkeley

  20. HydroShear: Hydroelastic Shear Simulation for Tactile Sim-to-Real Reinforcement Learning

    Feb 28, 2026An Dang, Jayjun Lee, Mustafa Mukadam +4Sim-to-Real TransferRobotic Tactile Sensing

    Robotics Department, University of Michigan · Amazon Industrial Robotics (AIR)

  21. Learning Robust Control Policies for Inverted Pose on Miniature Blimp Robots

    Feb 27, 2026Yuanlin Yang, Lin Hong, Fumin ZhangRobotic ControlAerial Robotics

    Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China

  22. OmniXtreme: Breaking the Generality Barrier in High-Dynamic Humanoid Control

    Feb 27, 2026Yunshen Wang, Shaohang Zhu, Peiyuan Zhi +7Humanoid Robot ControlHumanoid Motion Tracking

    State Key Laboratory of General Artificial Intelligence, Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence (BIGAI) · Joint Laboratory of Embodied AI and Humanoid Robots, BIGAI & Unitree Robotics · Shanghai Jiao Tong University +4

  23. MicroPush: A Lightweight Simulator for Sim-to-Real Microrobotic Pushing and Assembly

    Feb 27, 2026Yanda Yang, Zion Lee, Sambeeta DasRobot Policy LearningRobotics Simulation

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA

  24. SPARR: Simulation-based Policies with Asymmetric Real-world Residuals for Assembly

    Feb 26, 2026Yijie Guo, Iretiayo Akinola, Lars Johannsmeier +3Robotic AssemblySim-to-Real Transfer

    Nvidia · University of Washington

  25. Pixel2Catch: Multi-Agent Sim-to-Real Transfer for Agile Manipulation with a Single RGB Camera

    Feb 26, 2026Seongyong Kim, Junhyeon Cho, Kang-Won Lee +1Robotic ManipulationDynamic Robotic Manipulation

    Dongguk University

  26. Tacmap: Bridging the Tactile Sim-to-Real Gap via Geometry-Consistent Penetration Depth Map

    Feb 25, 2026Lei Su, Zhijie Peng, Renyuan Ren +4Sim-to-Real TransferTactile Sensing for Robotic Manipulation

    Sharpa · HKUST · NVIDIA

  27. Learning End-to-End Control for Omnidirectional Aerial Motion on Overactuated Tilt-rotor Quadrotors

    Feb 25, 2026Wentao Zhang, Zhaoqi Ma, Jinjie Li +8Quadrotor ControlRL Control

    DRAGON Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan · School of Computing and Data Science, The University of Hong Kong, 999077, HKSAR · Autonomous Systems Lab(ASL), ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland

  28. Squint: Fast Visual Reinforcement Learning for Sim-to-Real Robotics

    Feb 24, 2026Abdulaziz Almuzairee, Henrik I. ChristensenVisual RLSoft Actor-Critic

    Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA

  29. SynthRender and I-AsSET: Open-Source Framework and Dataset for Bidirectional Sim-Real Transfer in Industrial Object Perception

    Feb 24, 2026Jose Moises Araya-Martinez, Thushar Tom, Adrián Sanchis Reig +3Sim-to-Real TransferSynthetic-to-Real Domain Adaptation

    Technical University Berlin, Industrial Automation Technology, Berlin, Germany · Mercedes-Benz AG, Future Manufacturing Technologies, Sindelfingen, Germany · Technical University Braunschweig, Institute for Cognitive Robotics, Braunschweig, Germany

  30. Cooperative-Competitive Team Play of Real-World Craft Robots

    Feb 24, 2026Rui Zhao, Xihui Li, Yizheng Zhang +6Cooperative MARLMulti-Robot Coordination

    The authors are with Tencent Robotics X Laboratory, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. · The author is with Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.