# A Comprehensive Survey of Cross-Domain Policy Transfer for Embodied Agents

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.04580 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.04580/

## Key facts

- Cited by 16 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 71 of its 86 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Feb 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 71)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning for Fast Adaptation of Deep Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.03400/) (2017)
- [Domain Randomization for Transferring Deep Neural Networks from Simulation to the Real World](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.06907/) (2017)
- [A Generalist Agent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.06175/) (2022)
- [Learning Dexterous In-Hand Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.00177/) (2018)
- [Sim-to-Real Transfer of Robotic Control with Dynamics Randomization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.06537/) (2017)
- [BridgeData V2: A Dataset for Robot Learning at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.12952/) (2023)
- [End-to-end Autonomous Driving: Challenges and Frontiers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.16927/) (2023)
- [Reinforcement Learning with Augmented Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.14990/) (2020)
- [Time-Contrastive Networks: Self-Supervised Learning from Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.06888/) (2017)
- [VIP: Towards Universal Visual Reward and Representation via Value-Implicit Pre-Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.00030/) (2022)
- [Efficient Off-Policy Meta-Reinforcement Learning via Probabilistic Context Variables](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.08254/) (2019)
- [Learning to Adapt in Dynamic, Real-World Environments Through Meta-Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.11347/) (2018)
- [A Survey of Embodied AI: From Simulators to Research Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.04918/) (2021)
- [Domain Randomization and Pyramid Consistency: Simulation-to-Real Generalization without Accessing Target Domain Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.00889/) (2019)
- [Closing the Sim-to-Real Loop: Adapting Simulation Randomization with Real World Experience](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.05687/) (2018)
- [VariBAD: A Very Good Method for Bayes-Adaptive Deep RL via Meta-Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.08348/) (2019)
- [LIV: Language-Image Representations and Rewards for Robotic Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.00958/) (2023)
- [Active Domain Randomization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.04762/) (2019)
- [Imitation from Observation: Learning to Imitate Behaviors from Raw Video via Context Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.03374/) (2017)
- [Embodied Intelligence via Learning and Evolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.02202/) (2021)
- [Temporal Cycle-Consistency Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.07846/) (2019)
- [One-Shot Imitation from Observing Humans via Domain-Adaptive Meta-Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.01557/) (2018)
- [Preparing for the Unknown: Learning a Universal Policy with Online System Identification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.02453/) (2017)
- [EPOpt: Learning Robust Neural Network Policies Using Model Ensembles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.01283/) (2016)
- [Meta-Sim: Learning to Generate Synthetic Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.11621/) (2019)
- [Zero-Shot Visual Imitation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.08606/) (2018)
- [XIRL: Cross-embodiment Inverse Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.03911/) (2021)
- [Third-Person Imitation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.01703/) (2017)

## Built on by (most cited first, 16 of 16)

- [X-VLA: Soft-Prompted Transformer as Scalable Cross-Embodiment Vision-Language-Action Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.10274/) (2025)
- [Flow as the Cross-Domain Manipulation Interface](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.15208/) (2024)
- [Universal Actions for Enhanced Embodied Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.10105/) (2025)
- [Cross-Embodiment Dexterous Grasping with Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.02479/) (2024)
- [xTED: Cross-Domain Adaptation via Diffusion-Based Trajectory Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.08687/) (2024)
- [Hybrid Transfer Reinforcement Learning: Provable Sample Efficiency from Shifted-Dynamics Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.03810/) (2024)
- [DmC: Nearest Neighbor Guidance Diffusion Model for Offline Cross-domain Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.20499/) (2025)
- [Built Different: Tactile Perception to Overcome Cross-Embodiment Capability Differences in Collaborative Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14896/) (2024)
- [Dual-Robust Cross-Domain Offline Reinforcement Learning Against Dynamics Shifts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.02486/) (2025)
- [Hybrid Cross-domain Robust Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.23003/) (2025)
- [Knowledge Transfer for Cross-Domain Reinforcement Learning: A Systematic Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.17687/) (2024)
- [A Multi-Fidelity Control Variate Approach for Policy Gradient Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.05696/) (2025)
- [Representation Alignment from Human Feedback for Cross-Embodiment Reward Learning from Mixed-Quality Demonstrations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.05610/) (2024)
- [Policy Regularization on Globally Accessible States in Cross-Dynamics Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06893/) (2025)
- [Unifying Value Alignment and Assignment in Cross-Domain Offline Reinforcement Learning with Heterogeneous Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.24862/) (2026)
- [Transfer Learning Across Policy Regimes in Adaptive Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.09685/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The burgeoning fields of robot learning and embodied AI have triggered an increasing demand for large quantities of data. However, collecting sufficient unbiased data from the target domain remains a challenge due to costly data collection processes and stringent safety requirements. Consequently, researchers often resort to data from easily accessible source domains, such as simulation and laboratory environments, for cost-effective data acquisition and rapid model iteration. Nevertheless, the environments and embodiments of these source domains can be quite different from their target domain counterparts, underscoring the need for effective cross-domain policy transfer approaches. In this paper, we conduct a systematic review of existing cross-domain policy transfer methods. Through a nuanced categorization of domain gaps, we encapsulate the overarching insights and design considerations of each problem setting. We also provide a high-level discussion about the key methodologies used in cross-domain policy transfer problems. Lastly, we summarize the open challenges that lie beyond the capabilities of current paradigms and discuss potential future directions in this field.