A Survey on Physics Informed Reinforcement Learning: Review and Open
  Problems
Chayan Banerjee Kien Nguyen Clinton Fookes Maziar Raissi
The inclusion of physical information in machine learning frameworks has
revolutionized many application areas. This involves enhancing the learning
process by incorporating physical constraints and adhering to physical laws. In
this work we explore their utility for reinforcement learning applications. We
present a thorough review of the literature on incorporating physics
information, as known as physics priors, in reinforcement learning approaches,
commonly referred to as physics-informed reinforcement learning (PIRL). We
introduce a novel taxonomy with the reinforcement learning pipeline as the
backbone to classify existing works, compare and contrast them, and derive
crucial insights. Existing works are analyzed with regard to the
representation/ form of the governing physics modeled for integration, their
specific contribution to the typical reinforcement learning architecture, and
their connection to the underlying reinforcement learning pipeline stages. We
also identify core learning architectures and physics incorporation biases
(i.e., observational, inductive and learning) of existing PIRL approaches and
use them to further categorize the works for better understanding and
adaptation. By providing a comprehensive perspective on the implementation of
the physics-informed capability, the taxonomy presents a cohesive approach to
PIRL. It identifies the areas where this approach has been applied, as well as
the gaps and opportunities that exist. Additionally, the taxonomy sheds light
on unresolved issues and challenges, which can guide future research. This
nascent field holds great potential for enhancing reinforcement learning
algorithms by increasing their physical plausibility, precision, data
efficiency, and applicability in real-world scenarios.